Retrospective of trailblazing artist Faith Ringgold centers narratives of Black America — Colossal
Working across a variety of media, from painting to textiles to works on paper, Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) developed a practice that blended history, activism, formal inquiry, and global influence. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, her work stems from her awareness of the political and social issues of the 1960s and 1970s, which she transformed into “a profound narrative of the historical sacrifice and achievement of black Americans,” according to Jack Shainman Gallery.
A retrospective at the gallery this month spans Ringgold’s explorations of textiles, sculpture and works on canvas. She is best known for her story quilts that combine fabrics and embroidery with painted scenes of Harlem, jazz clubs, portraits (particularly of women), and historical references to slavery and black oppression in the United States.
Earlier this year, a documentary titled Paint Me a Way Out of Here was released, documenting the artist’s first public art work, a feminist mural at the Rikers Island Women’s Detention Facility. The mural “House for Women” contains eight patchwork sections containing images of women in predominantly male professional roles. Works such as “American People Series #19: American Stamps Commemorate the Emergence of Black Power” and “Blacklight #11: Black America” reflect this theme and are reminiscent of quilts that foreshadowed her later work.
At Jack Sherman Gallery, Faith Ringgold Highlights the artist’s extraordinary and innovative approach to form, perspective and materials. The gallery said she was acutely aware that the art historical canon was a predominantly white space, so she “sought forms more appropriate to the explorations of gender and racial identity she so desperately pursued”. In the 1970s, she traveled to Europe and then Africa to gather ideas.
When she first began working with textiles, Ringgold made what she calls “short pieces” inspired by sacred Tibet Thangka— textile images used for meditation — which she saw on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Ringgold’s iteration incorporates a sewn fabric border around the painting, which is made on unstretched canvas.
Eventually, the works became more abstract and then evolved into soft sculptures and performance pieces inspired by African mask traditions. As her work moved into the 1980s, story quilts became a way to render images on a larger scale and connect to time-honored textile craft traditions often associated with women. Jack Sherman said:
The meaning of Faith Ringgold’s life continues to be felt and understood in new, urgent, and relevant ways… Just as she relentlessly battled the sentiments of racial and gender exclusion that were prevalent in her time and ours, her unparalleled work in textiles also provides an example of how life and art—often thought of as separate—are actually deeply and fundamentally intertwined.
Faith Ringgold It opens in New York City on November 14th and runs through January 24th. Discover more of the artist’s work on her estate website and Instagram.
