Faith Ringgold, Artist, Triumphant

Faith Ringgold, Groovin', at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, 2018 Exhibit

 "When I see my work from all the different series and media assembled together, I feel a great deal of satisfaction that I was able to produce so much and that I had the freedom to find my own voice, against all odds. It’s deeply gratifying — I hope my story can be an inspiration for all artists." Faith Ringgold

"At 91, Faith Ringgold is having a big moment. Six decades of her art are on view in a retrospective exhibition at the New Museum in New York titled American People, paintings, sculptures, works on fabric, and the story quilts, a mix of writing, painting, and quilting, for which she is best known." Jeffrey Brown (note 1 below)

Faith Ringgold, The Sunflower Quilting Bee, one of her famous story quilts.

Faith Ringgold's roots go back to Harlem, where she was born in 1930 and became a talented artist of the late Harlem Renaissance, a painter, quilter, mixed media sculpture, performance artist, writer, teacher. She went to City College of New York (CCNY), travelled in Europe and Africa, made waves in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and Anti-Vietnam War protests. It was during this time she created her first political paintings. She moved toward sculpture, fabric art, and mixed media, establishing her voice and her legacy in the 1970s and 1980s until today. She wrote several books, including wonderful art books for children, and an autobiography, "We Flew Over the Bridge" (Duke U Press, 2005/1995)

"Recording history through her art," that's how Faith Ringgold views her oeuvre over time. And she did it her way, a pioneer in using a variety of mediums to tell what she saw, a pioneer in how she told the stories of her experiences, how she felt, a unique perspective. .

I love this! 

Nigeria, Africa!

This retrospective exhibit is at the New Museum in NYC until June 2022. I hope I can get there to see it. The Artistic Director, Massimilano Gioni, says of the artist: "She's opening doors and windows and making the house of art much more complex and hospitable. The great thing about seeing this work together, seeing 60 years of this work, is you understand how many times Faith Ringgold was right before her time."

Sources:.
1.  https://artscanvas.org/arts-culture/artist-faith-ringgolds-lifes-work-celebrated-in-new-york-exhibit?Great interview with Faith Ringgold on Judy Woodruff's PBS News Hour, by Jeffrey Brown, Anne Azzi Davenport and Allison Thoet.

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Ringgold

3. https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/faith-ringgold, by Dr. Catherine Harper.