A few weeks ago, we caught an episode of the BBC’s imagine… series entitled, Faith Ringgold: Tell It Like It Is. We were immediately captivated by the woman and her art. The signed version of the programme is still available to view on the iPlayer for the next 2 weeks (as of 23.08.19).
Ringgold (b.1930) paints strikingly beautiful and colourful wall-hung narrative quilts. Her works are highly prized, selling at auction for up to the hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
The programme shared the fact that she protested about the discrimination against women in exhibitions and museums, and was successful in opening up the New York art scene to more women and minority artists.
She is also a very successful children’s book author and illustrator. Her first book, Tar Beach, published in 1991, won awards.
About her work, Faith explains:
“I read feverishly, especially everything that James Baldwin had written on relationships between Blacks and Whites in America. Baldwin understood, I felt, the disparity between black and white people as well as anyone; but I had something to add — the visual depiction of the way we are and look. I wanted my paintings to express this moment I knew was history. I wanted to give my woman’s point of view to this period.”
She currently has a major exhibition running until 8 September 2019 at Serpentine Gallery in London.
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