Faith Ringgold: Story Quilts And Children's Books

Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) was an American artist and author, best known for her innovative quilts that communicate her political beliefs. Ringgold's work is often associated with themes of family, race, class, and gender, and she is considered a pioneer in addressing issues of social justice through her art. She is also recognised for her role in promoting the work of Black artists and advocating for their inclusion in major art institutions.

Ringgold's most renowned works include her story quilts, which combine narrative images and original stories set within the context of African American history. Her first story quilt, Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima? (1983), is a powerful commentary on racial and gender stereotypes. Another celebrated work is Tar Beach (1988), which was later adapted into a children's book and received numerous accolades, including the Caldecott Honor Book award in 1992.

Pioneering painter, mixed-media sculptor, performance artist, author, teacher and activist

Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) was a pioneering painter, mixed-media sculptor, performance artist, author, teacher, and activist. Her powerful works address issues of race, gender, and social justice. Ringgold's innovative use of quilting and storytelling techniques revolutionized the art world by bridging the gap between fine art and craft traditions.

Ringgold's early work confronted prejudice directly and made political statements, using the shock value of racial slurs to highlight the ethnic tension, political unrest, and race riots of the 1960s. Her early paintings focused on the underlying racism in everyday activities, making sales difficult and disquieting galleries and collectors.

In the 1970s, Ringgold's work moved away from traditional painting as she began using fabric and experimenting with soft sculptures. She created costumes by painting linen canvas and adding beads, raffia hair, and painted gourds for breasts. She also began making mixed-media costumed masks, which could be worn and had female characteristics such as breasts, bellies, and hips.

In the 1980s, Ringgold began working on "story quilts", which became some of her most renowned works. She painted these quilts with narrative images and original stories set in the context of African American history. Her first story quilt, "Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima?", was written in 1983 as a way of publishing her unedited words. Over the next four decades, Ringgold continued to innovate and reinvent her style, creating new original series of paintings and story quilts at least once every decade.

In addition to her art, Ringgold was also an educator, teaching in both the New York City Public School system and at the college level. She was a professor emeritus of art at the University of California, San Diego, from 1987 until her retirement in 2002.

Ringgold was also an activist throughout her life, participating in several feminist and anti-racist organizations. She helped to found the Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee, which protested a major modernist art exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968. She also co-founded Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation, the National Black Feminist Organization, and "Where We At" Black Women Artists, a New York-based women's art collective associated with the Black Arts Movement.

Ringgold's work is included in the permanent collections of many museums in the United States and abroad, including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, The High Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others.

Innovative use of quilting and storytelling techniques

Faith Ringgold is known for her innovative use of quilting and storytelling techniques, which she used to communicate her political beliefs and address issues of race, gender, and social justice. Ringgold's quilts are an extension of her earlier work with tankas (or thangkas—Tibetan paintings on cloth scrolls, framed in richly brocaded fabrics. She was inspired to create fabric borders for her paintings after a trip to Europe in the early 1970s, during which she encountered a collection of 14th- and 15th-century Tibetan and Nepali paintings in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.

Ringgold's first quilt, 'Echoes of Harlem' (1980), was a collaboration with her mother, Madame Willi Posey, a prominent Harlem fashion designer. Thirty portraits of Harlem residents are painted in a grid system, set off by rectangular quilt work. The overall effect is reminiscent of screen printing. With the use of a predominantly blue background, Ringgold creates a sense of a harmonious and diversified community.

Ringgold's first story quilt, 'Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima?' (1983), depicts a variety of different people, each connected to a block of text that tells part of Aunt Jemima's story. The artist contradicts the common stereotype of an African American woman by recasting Aunt Jemima as a successful businesswoman. This work also serves as "a feminist statement about the stereotype of black women as fat," as Ringgold notes that Aunt Jemima conveys a negative connotation similar to Uncle Tom.

Another notable story quilt by Ringgold is 'Tar Beach' (1988), which later inspired a children's book of the same name. The quilt depicts a family spending time outdoors on the rooftop, or 'tar beach', of their apartment building. In the centre, clothes are drying on a clothesline, and four people are gathered around a table playing cards, while another table is set with food. Cassie, the young protagonist, and her younger brother are resting on a blanket. The background features the New York City skyline, with Cassie also shown flying over the George Washington Bridge. The scene is bordered by fabric squares, many with floral patterns, and at the top and bottom, another border of rectangles contains text, telling Cassie's story.

Ringgold's quilts are a unique fusion of painting and quilting mediums, with decorative embellishments that unify the varied colour blocks used to create the border. By adopting a 'naive' or 'folk' technique, Ringgold suggests that the experience depicted in the work is being expressed directly and freely. She consciously chooses to lend a folk-art quality to the techniques in her story quilts as a means of emphasizing their narrative importance over compositional style.

Political beliefs and activism

Faith Ringgold was a prominent activist and a pivotal figure in the Black and Feminist Art Movements in New York during the 1970s. She was a founding member of several organisations, including the Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee, Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (co-founded with her daughter Michele Wallace), the National Black Feminist Organization, and "Where We At" Black Women Artists.

Ringgold's activism was driven by her desire to address the marginalisation of Black artists, particularly women, within the predominantly white art world. She protested a major modernist exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968, demanding equal representation for women artists. Ringgold also played a role in securing the inclusion of Black artists in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum.

In the early 1970s, Ringgold created a "Free Angela" poster design for the Black Panthers, which she gave to Angela Davis herself. She also painted a mural, "For the Women's House", at the Women's Facility on Rikers Island—her first public commission and widely regarded as her first feminist work. This mural inspired the creation of Art Without Walls, an organisation that brings art to prisons.

In 1970, Ringgold curated "The People's Flag Show" at Judson Memorial Church in New York City, a protest against the Vietnam War. The exhibition featured works that used the American flag to expose the country's political and social issues. Ringgold was arrested as a result of her involvement in this exhibition.

Ringgold's art and activism were deeply intertwined. Her early works directly confronted prejudice and made political statements, often incorporating racial slurs to highlight ethnic tensions and the race riots of the 1960s. She drew inspiration from African art and history, as well as the freedom of form used by her young students, to create paintings that reflected her burgeoning political consciousness.

In the 1980s, Ringgold began creating "story quilts", which became some of her most renowned works. These quilts served as a medium for her to communicate her political beliefs and address issues of race, gender, and social justice.

Children's books

Faith Ringgold is known for her narrative quilts, paintings, sculptures, and children's books. She has written and illustrated over a dozen children's books, with her first being the award-winning Tar Beach, published in 1991. The book has won over 20 awards, including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for the best-illustrated children's book of the year.

Tar Beach is based on the story quilt of the same title from the 1988 Woman on a Bridge series. The original painted story quilt is in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The book tells the story of a young Black girl in New York City who dreams about flying. Ringgold's later children's books include Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky (1992), My Dream of Martin Luther King (1995), Harlem Renaissance Party (2015), and We Came to America (2016).

Ringgold's children's books approach complex issues of racism in straightforward and hopeful ways, combining fantasy and realism to create an uplifting message for children. Many of her quilts inspired the children's books that she later made, such as Dinner at Aunt Connie's House (1993), which was based on The Dinner Quilt (1988).

Ringgold's children's books have received numerous awards and accolades. In addition to the awards mentioned above for Tar Beach, Ringgold won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award and was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal, the premier American Library Association award for picture book illustration, for Tar Beach.

Feminist and anti-racist causes

Faith Ringgold was an American artist and author, best known for her quilts and paintings that address issues of race, gender, and social justice. She was also a prominent activist for feminist and anti-racist causes.

Ringgold co-founded the Ad Hoc Women's Art Committee, which protested a major art exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968. The committee demanded that women artists account for 50% of the exhibitors. They also created disturbances at the museum by singing, blowing whistles, chanting about their exclusion, and leaving raw eggs and sanitary napkins on the ground. Ringgold was arrested on November 13, 1970, for her participation in these protests.

In 1970, Ringgold and her daughter Michele Wallace founded Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL). They also helped win admission for Black artists to the exhibit schedule at the Museum of Modern Art. Around 1974, Ringgold and Wallace were founding members of the National Black Feminist Organization. Ringgold was also a founding member of "Where We At" Black Women Artists, a New York-based women's art collective associated with the Black Arts Movement.

In 1972, Ringgold installed a large-scale mural, "For the Women's House", at the Women's Facility on Rikers Island. The mural is an anti-carceral work, composed of depictions of women in professional and civil servant roles, representing positive alternatives to incarceration. It is widely regarded as her first feminist work.

Ringgold's art and activism were closely intertwined. Her work confronted prejudice directly and made political statements, often using the shock value of racial slurs to highlight ethnic tension, political unrest, and race riots. She combined her African heritage and artistic traditions with her artistic training to create paintings, multimedia soft sculptures, and "story quilts" that elevated the sewn arts to the status of fine art.

Ringgold's quilts and paintings provided a means for her to tell her own story and express her political beliefs. She used her art to advocate for the feminist movement, as quilts were something she could simply roll up and take to the gallery without needing assistance from her husband.

In summary, Faith Ringgold was a pioneering artist and activist who played a significant role in feminist and anti-racist causes, particularly within the art world. She helped to raise the visibility of Black artists, especially Black women artists, and her work continues to inspire and influence others.

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