Faith Ringgold
About
About Faith Ringgold
Anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you cant get to any other way. The next thing you know, you’re flying among the stars.
– Faith Ringgold, “Tar Beach” (1991)
Born Faith Willi Jones on October 8, 1930, in Harlem, Faith Ringgold was a pioneering painter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, author, teacher and activist whose 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.
During the early 1960’s Ringgold traveled to Europe. She created her first political paintings, the American People series from 1963 to 1967 and had her first and second one-person exhibitions at the Spectrum Gallery in New York in 1967 and 1970. Following a second trip to Europe in the early 1970’s Ringgold began making tankas (Tibetan paintings framed in richly brocaded fabrics), soft sculptures, and masks. She used this medium in her masked performances of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Although Ringgold’s art was initially inspired by African art, it was not until the 1970’s that she traveled to Nigeria and Ghana to see the rich tradition of masks that have continued to be one of her greatest influences.
Ringgold made her first quilt, Echoes of Harlem, in 1980, in collaboration with her mother, Madame Willi Posey who was a prominent Harlem fashion designer. Ringgold’s quilts were an extension of her tankas from the 1970’s. These paintings were not only bordered with fabric but quilted as well – a unique fusion of painting and quilting mediums. Ringgold’s first story quilt, Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?, was written in 1983 as a way of publishing her unedited words. The addition of text to her quilts had developed into a unique medium and style all her own. Over the next forty years Ringgold continued to innovate and reinvent her style, creating new original series of paintings and storyquilts at least once every decade.
Ringgold’s first children’s book, the award-winning Tar Beach, was published in 1991 by Crown. It has won more than 20 awards, including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for the best-illustrated children’s book of the year. An animated version with Natalie Cole providing the voice-over was produced by HBO in 1999. The book is based on the story quilt of the same title from the 1988 Woman on a Bridge series. That original painted story quilt, Tar Beach, is in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Ringgold was the recipient of over 100 awards and honors; author of 20 children’s books; and subject of the recent critically acclaimed touring exhibition “Faith Ringgold: American People” (2022–2024). Faith Ringgold has been exclusively represented by ACA Galleries since 1995.
Artworks
Exhibitions
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Faith Ringgold
Prints and Multiples Mar 16 - Jun 17, 2022Read more -
A Black Perspective
Jan 8 - Jul 30, 2021Read more -
Music is the Message
Jul 16 - Oct 5, 2019Read more -
Faith Ringgold
The 70s Oct 25 - Dec 22, 2018Read more -
On Such a Night as This: A Celebration of African American Art
Nov 10, 2016 - Jan 28, 2017Read more -
Social Art in America
Then and Now May 6 - Jun 27, 2014Read more -
Textures
The Written Word in Contemporary Art May 4 - Jun 15, 2013Read more -
Faith Ringgold's America
Red, White and Black Jan 1 - Apr 21, 2013Read more
News
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The Must-See Black Art Exhibitions To Catch This Spring
Okla Jones, Essence Mar 27, 2025Spring is often a season of rebirth—but in museums across the globe, it’s also becoming a season of reckoning, remembrance, and radiant creative expression. This...Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s Message of Hope
Hilton Als, The New Yorker Feb 14, 2025In 1971, the painter, quilter, and children’s-book author Faith Ringgold went to prison. She was not incarcerated; she went as an artist and an activist,...Read more -
‘Paint Me a Road Out of Here’: Faith Ringgold’s Gift to Prisoners
Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times Feb 7, 2025In 1971, the artist Faith Ringgold received a grant to make a painting for a public institution in New York City. She decided to ask...Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s Historic Works Set the Scene at Dior Haute Couture
William Van Meter, Artnet News Jun 26, 2024Yesterday at Dior’s show in Paris, two women textile artists and activists communed on the runway. The luxury maison’s outspoken creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s...Read more -
Faith Ringgold Dies at 93; Wove Black Life Into Quilts and Children’s Books
By Margalit Fox from the New York Times Apr 13, 2024A champion of Black artists, she explored themes of race, gender, class, family and community through a vast array of media and later the written...Read more -
A small but powerful exhibit showcases Faith Ringgold's work in Worcester
By Arielle Gray at WBUR Jan 5, 2024Faith Ringgold has always said what she pleases. Born in 1930 in Harlem, the 93-year-old artist has spent decades creating artwork that challenges dominant cultural...Read more -
Faith Ringgold Is Black Art: A Review of “American People” at MCA
BY JEN TORWUDZO-STROH Dec 1, 2023Every generation has a precious few artists whose works come to embody the very heart and soul of the time. Faith Ringgold is one of those artists. Best known for her hand-painted quilts, the ninety-three-year-old artist, writer, educator and activist has charted a sixty-year career dedicated to making political artworks that are urgent, demanding and honest. The exhibition “Faith Ringgold: American People” at the Museum of Contemporary Art is an expansive review of Ringgold’s poignant artworks contextualized by the political climate of the time and her own political beliefs. Six decades of paintings, sculptures, quilts, children’s books, interviews and archival material are woven together to tell not only the story of an artist and an activist but also the story of Blackness, marginalization and activism in America.Read more -
Artists of Color Ask: When is Visibility a Trap?
Aruna D'Souza - The New York Times Oct 27, 2023In 'Going Dark' at the Guggenheim, 28 artists explore urgent questions around what it means to be seen, and to see each other. Your first...Read more -
At Museums and Galleries, a Spirit of Togetherness
Across the nation, art exhibitions offer a look at the impact artists have on one another, their subjects and their communities. Oct 18, 2023The spirit of creative collaboration is on display in gallery and museum shows this fall and winter. Across the United States, exhibitions focusing on artists’...Read more -
What to see at this year’s Frieze art fairs, from Leila Babiyre’s queer-themed sculpture to an actual dinosaur
Ben Luke - The Standard Oct 12, 2023It’s the 20th anniversary of the art fair which helped make London one of the capitals of the contemporary art world. Faith Ringgold ACA Galleries,...Read more -
What not to miss during Frieze 2023
BY EMILY STEER published on Bazzar Oct 11, 2023London’s exceptional art scene comes alive in October. This week, an autumnal Regent’s Park plays host to the art fairs Frieze London and Masters, and...Read more -
‘Famous then forgotten’: can Frieze rescue the legions of lost female painters?
by Amy Fleming Oct 10, 2023Down a leafy mews in Montparnasse where the windows and doorways are heavilyfringed with vines, you can still find a tantalising hint of old Paris....Read more -
10 Art Shows to See in Chicago This Fall
by Zoë Lescaze, Hyperallergic Oct 2, 2023'Faith Ringgold: American People Originally organized by the New Museum in New York City, this commanding survey of Faith Ringgold’s remarkable career takes its title...Read more -
The 100 Greatest New York City Artworks, Ranked
By Alex Greenberger, Artnews Aug 29, 2023If the experiences of Ringgold and many other Black women are frequently denied by the mainstream, Ringgold upholds them here, echoing what it’s truly like to live in Harlem, a neighborhood whose predominantly Black citizenry long went unrepresented within the walls of art spaces. (The quilt format itself is a reference to a long Black tradition of art-making, which her grandmother practiced.) Crucially, other, related quilts by Ringgold feature New York cityscapes populated only by Black men, women, and children; they are at the center of Ringgold’s world, rather than existing at its margins.Read more -
Ringgold, Unterberg, Vendler to be Honored by Arts Academy
AP News Mar 18, 2023NEW YORK (AP) — Author-visual artist Faith Ringgold, poetry critic Helen Hennessy Vendler and photographer Susan Unterberg will be honored this spring at the American Academy of Arts and Letters′ annual awards and induction ceremony.Read more -
Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold Was Wilson’s Artist In Residence In 1976 Feb 21, 2023Through paintings, traditional masks, and quilts, artist Faith Ringgold explored the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for women’s rights through her art and incorporated the rich history of African culture into her work.Read more -
The Defining Exhibitions of 2022
the Editors of Artnews Dec 21, 2022This year, after a series of delays, many of the most anticipated exhibitions of the past few years, coincided, resulting in a bounty of art to see. Prime among them were recurring shows, like the Venice Biennale in Italy and Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany, which lured hundreds of thousands of visitors with the promise of cutting-edge art. But, alongside those art festivals, which tended to hog the spotlight, a number of surveys and retrospectives continued to push at the limits of the canon and introduce new figures, all the while complicating the study of artists who are well-known. Many of these shows are still traveling and will continue to reshape art history as they venture to new venues. Below, a look at the 25 exhibitions that defined 2022.Read more -
Annie Leibovitz & Thelma Golden on Eight of the Most Influential Female Artists of Our Time
Annie Leibovitz & Thelma Golden Oct 14, 2022Working across many visual vocabularies, the eight artists featured here collectively represent the phenomenal trajectory of the last half century. They have received widespread recognition for practices that have magnificently engaged media, pioneered new forms, and expressed radical subjectivities around history, gender, race, and identity - while expanding representations of women in the world of art and beyond.Read more -
Faith Ringgold Makes Time 100, Influential Artist Has "Painted, Sculpted, Written, Sewed, and Incited Change All Her Life", May 23, 2022 - Victoria L. Valentine Faith Ringgold Makes Time 100, Influential Artist Has "Painted, Sculpted, Written, Sewed, and
Victoria L. Valentine May 23, 2022THE TIME 100 LIST of the most influential people of 2022 was announced today and Faith Ringgold, 91, was among the many impressive figures honored. The newsmagazine enlisted Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem to pay tribute to Ringgold.Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s “Jazz Stories: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart”
The New Yorker, Françoise Mouly Mar 21, 2022In the artist Faith Ringgold’s children’s book “Harlem Renaissance Party,” Lonnie, a young boy, and his Uncle Bates spend a whirlwind day in nineteen-twenties Harlem meeting Black artistic greats, including Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, and Coleman Hawkins. At the end of the tour, Lonnie says to his uncle, “Black people didn’t come to America to be free. We fought for our freedom by creating art, music, literature, and dance.” His uncle responds, “Now everywhere you look you find a piece of our freedom.” This understanding of the inescapable entanglement of joy and sorrow—and of hardship and creation—is one that echoes through much of Ringgold’s work, which can be seen, in a major retrospective, “Faith Ringgold: American People,” at the New Museum, in New York City, through June. This week’s cover, for the Spring Style & Design Issue, features a piece from Ringgold’s “Jazz Stories” series, which she began in 2004. In it, Ringgold, who was born in Harlem in 1930, celebrates the music that has provided her with a lifetime of inspiration.Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s Path of Maximum Resistance
The New York Times, Holland Cotter Feb 17, 2022If you want to catch the heat of the lava flow that was United States racial politics in the 1960s, the second floor of the New Museum in Manhattan is a good place to go. There you’ll find the earliest work in “Faith Ringgold: American People,” the first local retrospective of the Harlem-born artist in almost 40 years. Now 91, Ringgold was already a committed painter when the Black Power movement erupted. And she had a personal investment in the questions it raised: not just how to survive as a Black person in a racist white world, but how, as a woman, to thrive in any world at all.Read more -
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC Acquires Faith Ringgold
National Gallery of Art Oct 21, 2021“This may well be the most important purchase of a single work of contemporary art since the National Gallery acquired Jackson Pollock’s No. 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) in 1976,” said Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of the department of modern and contemporary art. The National Gallery of Art has acquired The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding (1967), its first painting by Faith Ringgold (b. 1930). This pivotal work by a leading figure of contemporary art exemplifies the artist’s skill in using art as a vehicle to question the social dynamics of race, gender, and power. As a visual storyteller, Ringgold is known for her thought-provoking depictions of the difficult realities of the American experience.Read more -
Faith Ringgold's art of fearlessness and joy
CBS Sunday Morning - Nancy Giles Jul 11, 2021Watch Faith Ringgold on CBS Sunday Morning Sunday Morning Extra Nancy Giles talks with artist Faith Ringgold, who for decades refused to bow to convention during her career as she stitched a vibrant tapestry of art, history and social commentaryRead more -
In the Studio With Faith Ringgold, Living Icon
W Magazine, Stephanie Eckardt Apr 23, 2021“Mhm, that’s right,” Faith Ringgold says, reading the text at the bottom of her 1972 work United States of Attica: “This map of American violence is incomplete. Please write in whatever you find lacking.” We’re discussing one violent event in particular—the race riots that rocked Tulsa, Oklahoma 100 years ago—when it hits me: The massacre almost took place during Ringgold’s lifetime. The artist is now 90, and about as spry as a nonagenarian can be.Read more -
At Age 90, Artist Faith Ringgold Is Still Speaking Her Mind
The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Crow Mar 31, 2021The provocative pioneer known for quilts chronicling scenes of Black history, hope and protest, is the focus of a sweeping show coming to the Glenstone museum in MarylandRead more -
Faith Ringgold is an artist, an activist and a prophet. But that’s only scratching the surface.
The Washington Post, Philip Kennicott Mar 31, 2021The 1962 painting, an early work by the acclaimed artist, is encountered at the beginning of a powerful survey of her career on view at the Glenstone museum. Originally presented in 2019 at the Serpentine Galleries in London, the show traveled to Sweden and is seen here in its only U.S. venue.Read more -
Faith Ringgold: 'I'm not going to see riots and not paint them'
The Guardian, Ellen E Jones Mar 18, 2021In a 70-year career, Ringgold has shown the US its bloody, brutal side. And yet the artist started out wanting to paint landscapes … She talks about growing up during the Harlem Renaissance and her battles with the establishmentRead more -
How the Studio Museum in Harlem Transformed the Art World Forever
Harper's Bazaar, Salamishah Tillet Feb 26, 2021Betye Saar. Faith Ringgold. Mickalene Thomas. Julie Mehretu. Simone Leigh. Jordan Casteel. These are only a few of the Black women artists who have recently exhibited in the nation’s largest museums, like the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, and the Getty.Read more -
‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’ Reveals a History of Neglect and Triumph
The New York Times, Holland Cotter Feb 8, 2021“This is Black art. And it matters. And it’s been going on for two hundred years. Deal with it.” So declares the art historian Maurice Berger toward the beginning of “Black Art: In the Absence of Light,” a rich and absorbing documentary directed by Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) and debuting on HBO Tuesday night. The feature-length film, assembled from interviews with contemporary artists, curators and scholars, was inspired by a single 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” the first large-scale survey of African-American artists.Read more -
Artists become storytellers in Ringling College show
Herald-Tribune, Marty Fugate Feb 5, 2021“Storytellers: Faith Ringgold + Aminah Robinson” showcases the work of two game-changing African-American artists at Ringling College. Ringgold is a painter, a sculptor, a quilt-maker, and an award-winning children’s author and illustrator. Robinson’s art includes drawings, cloth paintings, books and woodcuts. Curators Tim Jaeger and Mikaela Lamarche reflect Robinson and Ringgold’s multimedia approach by framing their art in a narrative context.Read more -
Faith Ringgold Will Keep Fighting Back
The New York Times, Bob Morris Jun 11, 2020ENGLEWOOD, N.J. — Faith Ringgold has seen plenty of shake-ups and strange moments in her 89 well-traveled years. But the provocative Harlem-born artist — who has confronted race relations in this country from every angle, led protests to diversify museums decades ago, and even went to jail for an exhibition she organized — has had no reference point for the pandemic keeping her in lockdown and creatively paralyzed in her home in this leafy suburb for much of the spring.Read more -
New Yorkers invited to design iconic Rockefeller Center flags
6sqft, Devin Gannon May 18, 2020A public art competition launched last week that asks New Yorkers to submit designs for the iconic flags that surround the Rink at Rockefeller Center. Led by the site’s developer Tishman Speyer, “The Flag Project” is looking for artwork that celebrates New York City, whether it be through graphic design, a drawing, or collage. Winning designs will be made into flags and flown from Rockefeller Center’s 192 flagpoles this August as part of a temporary exhibit.Read more -
"Riffs and Relations" Examines Influence of European Modernism on Black Artists
Hypebeast Mar 25, 2020The sweeping coronavirus pandemic has closed museums around the world for the near future, but the visual arts can still be enjoyed at least to an extent. One current exhibition, “Riffs and Relations” at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is turning the spotlight on an expansive group of African-American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.Read more -
'Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition' Opens at The Phillips on Feb. 29
Feb 25, 2020On Saturday, The Phillips Collection in D.C. will debut Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, a pioneering exhibition expanding the narrative of modern art in America by exploring the rich and complex history of 20th– and 21st–century African American artists and their responses to European modernism. Organized by guest curator Dr. Adrienne L. Childs and The Phillips Collection, Riffs and Relations will be on view exclusively at The Phillips Collection from February 29–May 24, 2020.Read more -
This Artwork Changed My Life: Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"
Artsy, Casey Lesser Jan 21, 2020The first time I saw Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937), I nearly missed it. I was 15 years old, studying abroad in Spain for the month...Read more -
Race, resistance and revolution: what to expect from US art in 2020
The Guardian, Nadja Sayej Jan 6, 2020In the months leading up to the election, museums and galleries across America will host a number of impassioned and political exhibitions.Read more -
Close Encounters
Artforum, Kerry James Marshall Jan 2, 2020Kerry James Marshall on Pablo Picasso, Faith Ringgold, Henri Matisse, and Alma Thomas at MoMARead more -
Exhibitions London 2019: Best art shows of the year, from Kara Walker to Cindy Sherman
Evening Standard, Zoe Paskett Dec 18, 2019The capital’s galleries and museums have been packed to the rafters with outstanding exhibitions this year.Read more -
Expert Eye: Isaac Julien shares his favourite works at Art Basel in Miami Beach
The Art Newspaper, Gabriella Angeleti Dec 3, 2019The Harlem artist will have works from the 1970s and 1990s on view at Art Basel Miami Beach.Read more -
For Faith Ringgold, the Past Is Present
The New York Times, Farah Nayeri Dec 3, 2019The Harlem artist will have works from the 1970s and 1990s on view at Art Basel Miami Beach.Read more -
An Art-Inspired Gift Guide to Make Your Holidays Shine Bright
Hyperallergic Nov 27, 2019With the holidays nearly upon us, it’s time again to start thinking about how you want to celebrate your loved ones. If capitalism is your preferred means for expressing affection, have no fear, Hyperallergic’s editors have banded together to offer our picks for some of this year’s top art-related gifts. From books, to playing cards, and various hand-crafted goods, we’ve got you covered this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Peruse away below:Read more -
Black art has its moment, finally
The Philadelphia Tribune, Roberta Smith Nov 25, 2019What made the 2010s the most thrilling of all the decades I’ve spent in the New York art world was the rising presence of Black artists of every ilk, on every front: in museums, commercial galleries, art magazines, private collections and public commissions.Read more -
A Sea Change in the Art World, Made by Black Creators
The New York Times, Roberta Smith Nov 24, 2019What made the 2010s the most thrilling of all the decades I’ve spent in the New York art world was the rising presence of black artists of every ilk, on every front: in museums, commercial galleries, art magazines, private collections and public commissions.Read more -
Baltimore Museum of Art Will Only Collect Works by Women in 2020
ARTNews, Claire Selvin Nov 18, 2019Under the leadership of director Christopher Bedford, the Baltimore Museum of Art has made strides towards diversifying its collection. In 2018, the institution sparked a controversy when it deaccessioned works by white male artists like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Franz Kline, and used proceeds from those sales to purchase pieces by Charles Gaines, Emma Amos, Faith Ringgold, Ana Mendieta, and other artists of color and women artists.Read more -
‘Soul of a Nation’ explodes with Black Power
SF Examiner, Anita Katz Nov 12, 2019“Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983,” a comprehensive traveling exhibition celebrating African-American art and artists from the stormy, revolutionary, momentous Black Power era, has arrived at the de Young Museum.Read more -
‘We were always here’: Blockbuster ‘Soul of a Nation’ comes to de Young Museum
Datebook, Charles Desmarais Nov 7, 2019The latest edition of the catalog for “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” the blockbuster exhibition that opens Saturday, Nov. 9, at the de Young Museum, features an extraordinary cover image.Read more -
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR LISA FARRINGTON ILLUSTRATES HOW ART ENRICHES A JUSTICE-FOCUSED EDUCATIO
John Jay College of Criminal Justice Nov 7, 2019Lisa Farrington, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Founding Chair Emeritus in the Department of Art & Music, has lived a life surrounded by art—whether creating it, analyzing it, writing about it, or teaching a course, art has been at the center of her life. Over the years, her work has garnered a number of accolades, most recently the Lifetime Achievement award from the Anyone Can Fly Foundation. The award, which honors master artists and scholars of the African diaspora, was especially meaningful because it came from Faith Ringgold, the artist that awoke Farrington’s passion for African-American art. “Growing up I didn’t know much about African-American artists because African-American art wasn’t being taught in most schools at the time. It was during an art class that I took while pursuing my bachelor’s degree at Howard University, a Historically Black College, that I was introduced to Faith Ringgold’s work. We were shown her painting ‘American People Series #20: Die’ and I was completely blown away by her work. That piece now hangs next to Picasso’s ‘Demoiselles d’Avignon’ at the Museum of Modern Art.” Years later, while attending the CUNY Graduate Center, Ringgold’s work took center stage in Farrington’s doctoral dissertation, which later became two books, and put her on a path toward educating at John Jay.Read more -
The Pattern and Decoration Movement Is the Missing Feminist Piece of Our Maximalist Moment
Architectural Digest, Stacie Stukin Nov 5, 2019A new MOCA exhibition reminds viewers of P&D's quilts, wallpapers, and long-overlooked significanceRead more -
MoMA's Revisionism Is Piecemeal and Problem-Filled: Feminist Art Historian Maura Reilly on the Museum's Rehang
Artnews, Maura Reilly Oct 31, 2019During the 1990s, while pursuing my graduate art history degree at New York University, I worked in the Education Department of the Museum of Modern Art, where I led gallery tours of the museum’s permanent collection for the general public and occasionally VIPs. At that time, the permanent exhibition galleries, representing art produced from 1880 to the mid-1960s, were arranged to tell the “story” of modern art as conceived by founding director Alfred H. Barr, Jr., beginning with Monet and Cézanne, and then leading into Picasso, Futurism, Surrealism, and Jackson Pollock. According to Barr, “modern art” was a synchronic, linear progression of “isms” in which one (heterosexual, white) male “genius” from Europe or the U.S. influenced another who inevitably trumped or subverted his previous master, thereby producing an avant-garde progression. Barr’s story was so ingrained in the institution that it was never questioned as problematic. The fact that very few women, artists of color, and those not from Europe or North America—in other words, all “Other” artists—were not on display was not up for discussion. Indeed, I was dissuaded by my boss from cheekily offering a tour of “women artists in the collection” at a time when there were only eight on view.Read more -
MoMA Reopening: Everything You Need to Know
The New York Times, Azi Paybarah Oct 21, 2019For the last four months, one of the best known art institutions in the country, the Museum of Modern Art has been closed as part of an approximately $450 million renovation.Read more -
What the New MoMA Misunderstands About Pablo Picasso and Faith Ringgold
Frieze, Jack McGrath Oct 18, 2019Whether pairing the two inspires consternation or praise depends largely on how we conceive of the purpose of the Museum itselfRead more -
Budge up, great white males! MoMA goes global with an explosive $450m rehang
The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins Oct 16, 2019It has the world’s finest modern art collection. But now the revered museum is rebalancing its walls – massively boosting work by women and artists of colourRead more -
The Exuberance of MOMA’s Expansion
The New Yorker, Peter Schjeldahl Oct 14, 2019The museum’s unparalleled collection spreads out in an enlarged space with updated stories to tell.Read more -
MoMA Reboots With 'Modernism Plus'
Holland Cotter Oct 10, 2019When the Museum of Modern Art reopens on Oct. 21 after a $450-million, 47,000-square-foot expansion, it will finally, if still cautiously, reveal itself to be a living, breathing 21st-century institution, rather than the monument to an obsolete history — white, male, and nationalist — that it has become over the years since its founding in 1929.Read more -
New York's Iconic Museum of Modern Art Reveals Its $450 Million Makeover
Architectural Digest, Nick Mafi Oct 10, 2019Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, the renovated space includes an additional 165,000 square feet of gallery space, while making the artwork more accessible to the public.Read more -
Speaking Terms: Faith Ringgold’s Decades-Long Artistic Legacy Finds Power in London
ARTNews, Rianna Jade Parker Sep 6, 2019In 1990, Verso Press republished Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman—a now-notorious critique of the 1960s-era Black Power Movement by Michele Wallace, a feminist writer and also the daughter of artist Faith Ringgold—with a new introduction in which the author reflected on lessons learned in the years after her book’s original publication in 1978. “It is my conviction that the only way to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past is to openly discuss them,” Wallace wrote. “Whether in nations, families, or individuals, the practice of being on speaking terms with your past lives is the only thing that makes it possible to trust yourself or anyone else. … The thing that still remained to be worked out was my relationship to my family as a writer and as a woman.”Read more -
Six Works From Glenstone Are Going on Display at the Reach
Washingtonian, Nathan Diller Sep 5, 2019From one great American institution to another, six works from Glenstone are taking a trip along the Potomac to be displayed at the Reach, the Kennedy Center’s new expansion, which opens to the public this weekend. Starting on September 7th, the works, ranging from aluminum paintings to mixed media on wood, will be on view alongside four other permanent pieces.Read more -
A Portrait of Faith Ringgold Painted by Alice Neel is Jordan Casteel’s Favorite Artwork
Culture Type, Victoria L. Valentine Aug 27, 2019WORKS BY MORE THAN 60 ARTISTS, including Faith Ringgold, are featured in “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.” Nearly all the artists are black, except Virginia Jaramillo, Andy Warhol (1928-1987), and Alice Neel (1900-1984), who contributed a portrait of Ringgold to the landmark exhibition.Read more -
The Hirshhorn Museum Asked Artists About Their Influences. Amy Sherald Chose Deborah Roberts, Jordan Casteel Selected Faith Ringgold
Culture Type, Victoria L. Valentine Aug 25, 2019FOR ITS FIFTH ANNUAL GALA in New York, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is paying tribute to 42 artists, an “intergenerational vanguard” including Jordan Casteel, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald, Deborah Roberts, and David Hartt.Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s Painted and Sewn Survey of United States History
Hyperallergic, Naomi Polonsky Aug 5, 2019At London’s Serpentine Gallery, Faith Ringgold tells stories of race and self-discovery which have too often gone untold.Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s Painted and Sewn Survey of United States History
Hyperallergic, Naomi Polonsky Aug 5, 2019At London’s Serpentine Gallery, Faith Ringgold tells stories of race and self-discovery which have too often gone untold.Read more -
On View: At Serpentine Galleries in London, Faith Ringgold’s First Solo Exhibition at a European Institution
Culture Type, Victoria L. Valentine Jul 21, 2019SERPENTINE GALLERIES is presenting a five-decade survey of pioneering American artist Faith Ringgold, 88. Throughout her career, Ringgold has worked at the intersection of art and politics. Exploring many bodies of work dating from 1963 to 2010, the show spans the civil rights and Black Power eras and continues a decade into the 21st century.Read more -
Black Female Artists Are Headlining Exhibitions Throughout London This Summer
Culture Type, Victoria L. Valentine Jul 21, 2019MORE THAN A DOZEN EXHIBITIONS, most in and around London, are showcasing the work of black female artists this summer. Presented at museums, nonprofits, and commercial galleries, many of the shows are breaking new ground for the artists, who span generations. Faith Ringgold at Serpentine Galleries is making her European institutional solo debut and Deborah Roberts at Stephen Friedman Gallery is presenting her first-ever European solo exhibition.Read more -
88-Year-Old Artist Faith Ringgold: "There Is Power In Ageing"
Vogue, Amel Mukhtar Jul 8, 2019“There is power in ageing,” Faith Ringgold declares. We are talking about her forthcoming project, Ageing-aling-aling, but, coming after a wealth of stories, narrated in the slinky Chucs café next to her first European retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery, the statement feels a little redundant. At 88, and as engaged as ever, the multidisciplinary artist has witnessed numerous landmark social shifts - and all the more extraordinarily, been at the centre of many.Read more -
Faith Ringgold: The artist who captured the soul of the US
BBC, Arwa Haider Jul 3, 2019As a new exhibition of art by Faith Ringgold opens in London, the 88-year-old talks to Arwa Haider about her early life and how she created subversive works with postage stamps and story quilts.Read more -
Luchita Hurtado / Faith Ringgold review: Veterans of vivid art show off their true colours
Evening Standard, Ben Luke Jun 11, 2019These shows are surveys of long lives — the combined age of Hurtado and Ringgold is 186. Neither has had a UK solo show before.Read more -
News: Three exhibitions to see in London this weekend, June 7, 2019 - The Art Newspaper, Gareth Harris and Gabriella Angeleti Three exhibitions to see in London this weekend
The Art Newspaper, Gareth Harris and Gabriella Angeleti Jun 7, 2019From Michael Rakowitz’s recreations of bombed artefacts at the Whitechapel Gallery, to Faith Ringgold’s story quilts at the Serpentine GalleryRead more -
‘Everything She Takes Becomes Hers’: A Look Back at Faith Ringgold’s ‘Compelling, Singular Vision’
ArtNews Jun 7, 2019During the 1960s and ’70s, Faith Ringgold was at the center of a community of black female artists dealing in their work with issues related to race, gender, and their intersections. While her “story quilts”—woven pieces that reveal aspects of her autobiography—are well-known, her paintings and sculptural works have only recently received mainstream recognition. With a retrospective of the artist’s work now on view at the Serpentine Gallery in London, we went through our archives and pulled out excerpts from interviews with Ringgold and reviews of her work, including musings on her first-ever solo exhibition, at Spectrum Gallery in New York. American People Series #20: Die (1967), the 12-foot-long painting mentioned in that review, was recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York—a sign of Ringgold’s rising star. —Alex GreenbergerRead more -
Iconic American Artist Faith Ringgold Lands in London With a Powerful Show at the Serpentine
Newsweek, Paula Froelich Jun 6, 2019The iconic American artist Faith Ringgold takes London by storm in a powerful new show at the Serpentine Gallery.Read more -
London Celebrates Artist Faith Ringgold’s Black Power
WWD, Natalie Theodosi Jun 5, 2019Ringgold is the subject of the Serpentine Galleries' summer exhibition and to coincide with the opening, Matchesfashion.com has also dedicated a room at 5 Carlos Place to celebrate her work.Read more -
FAITH RINGGOLD TAKES ON THE SERPENTINE GALLERIES AND TRUMP
Cultured, Diana McClure May 16, 2019With its potent depictions of racial violence and African American empowerment now more palatable to the mainstream, the explicit political content in Faith Ringgold’s early work is increasingly de rigueur.Read more -
The Armory Show: A Mini Survey of Faith Ringgold’s Legendary Practice is on Display at ACA Galleries
Victoria L. Valentine Mar 10, 2019ACA GALLERIES is showing for the first time at The Armory Show and the storied dealer has dedicated its entire booth to Faith Ringgold. There are three paintings from her Black Light Series (1967-69) on display, graphic political prints from the early 1970s, figurative sculptures made in 1978, story quilts including “Change 2” (1988) and “Tar Beach #2” (1990), and paintings on fabric from 2010 called tankas that feature portraits of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Martin Luther King Jr.Read more -
Highlights from the Armory Show 2019
Architectural Digest, Katherine McGrath Mar 7, 2019A selection of booths and works from this year's fair that caught AD's eyeRead more -
The Most Influential Living African American Artists
Artsy Feb 25, 2019In 1926, the historian Carter G. Woodson instituted Negro History Week. The second-ever African American recipient of a Ph.D. from Harvard (after W.E.B. DuBois), Woodson wanted to acknowledge the vibrant cultural achievements of African American individuals that were rippling through the country. At the time, Harlem was brimming with poets such as Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, while Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller were developing Chicago’s jazz scene. In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially transformed Woodson’s initiative into the month-long celebration we honor to this day: Black History Month.Read more -
Alife & Brooklyn Museum Honor Artist Faith Ringgold with Black History Month Collab
Hypebeast, Keith Estiler Feb 6, 2019A capsule collection spotlighting Ringgold’s iconic ‘The United States of Attica’ artwork.Read more -
The Civil-Rights Activist Who Pushed Museums to Feature Black Artists
The Cut, Jenna Adrian-Diaz Sep 28, 2018More than 300 people gathered at the Brooklyn Museum last night to listen to 87-year-old Faith Ringgold speak about her extraordinary career and activism, which included fighting for major New York City museums to feature work by black artists in the 1960s. Two of her artworks appear in the Brooklyn Museum’s recently opened retrospective, “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which features black artists who explored themes of race, identity, and activism from the years 1963 to 1983.Read more -
For Faith Ringgold, the American Flag Has Always Been a Potent and Powerful Symbol
Culture Type, Victoria L. Valentine Jul 4, 2018THE AMERICAN FLAG, its design and all that it symbolizes, is the basis for some of the most politically potent and astute work Faith Ringgold has made over past half century.Read more -
50 Years of Celebrating Black Beauty and Culture: Faith Ringgold
Frieze, Osei Bonsu Apr 19, 2018With her first UK show at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, the Harlem-born artist reflects on the African American experienceRead more -
An Exhibition About Revolution that Keeps Faith with Ringgold
Hyperallergic, Ramsay Kolber Sep 15, 2017It is a great irony that the Faith Ringgold’s first public commission was effectively imprisoned for over 40 years, but this situation raises valuable questions regarding our notions of the public and how that public is served.Read more -
‘Freedom of Speech Is Absolutely Imperative’: Faith Ringgold on Her Early Art, Activ
ARTNews, Andrew Russeth Dec 8, 2016Earlier this year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired one of Faith Ringgold’s landmark early paintings, American People Series #20: Die (1967), a potent 12-foot-long scene of a riot that shows black and white men and women running, crying, and falling to the ground, their faces gripped by horror. Two terrified children hold each other amid the mayhem. Blood is everywhere.Read more -
The Enduring Power of Faith Ringgold’s Art
Artsy Aug 4, 2016In 1967, a year of widespread race riots in America, Faith Ringgold painted a 12-foot-long canvas called American People Series #20: Die. The work shows a tumult of figures, both black and white, wielding weapons and spattered with blood. It was a watershed year for Ringgold, who, after struggling for a decade against the marginalization she faced as a black female artist, unveiled the monumental piece in her first solo exhibition at New York’s Spectrum Gallery. Earlier this year, several months after Ringgold turned 85, the painting was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, cementing her legacy as a pioneering artist and activist whose work remains searingly relevant.Read more -
The Storyteller: At 85, Her Star Still Rising, Faith Ringgold Looks Back on Her Life in Art, Activism, and Education
ARTNews, Andrew Russeth Mar 1, 2016In 1963, Faith Ringgold was 32, the mother of two daughters, and on the hunt for a gallery to show her work. To say that it was difficult for black artists to find gallery representation at that time would be a gross understatement. Nevertheless, as Ringgold tells it in her memoirs, We Flew over the Bridge (1995), she was unrelenting in her search, and one day she had a meeting with Ruth White, who ran a gallery in Manhattan on 57th Street.Read more -
The Surprising Vision of Artist Faith Ringgold
NPR, Celeste Headlee Dec 26, 2013Legendary artist Faith Ringgold began her career in 1963 — the same year as the March on Washington. She talks to guest host Celeste Headlee about her life, work and why no one originally wanted to hear her story.Read more -
Faith Ringgold’s ‘American People, Black Light’
The Washington Post, Lonnae O'Neal Parker Jun 13, 2013Fifty years after the racial upheaval of the 1960s, Americans often like to say they don’t see color. They pretend not to see it even when it’s right in front of their faces, says artist Faith Ringgold. It’s a worldview she finds delusional, counterintuitive and impossible for artists like herself who traffic in color and shades of meaning.Read more
Museum Shows
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Collection in Focus | Faith Ringgold
at The Guggenheim Museum May 9 - Sep 14, 2025Explore Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach (1988), one of the most important works by Faith Ringgold, a renowned artist, writer, and...Read more -
Faith Ringgold: American People
At the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Nov 18, 2023 - Feb 25, 2024Artist, author, educator, and organizer Faith Ringgold is one of the most influential cultural figures of her generation, with a career linking the multidisciplinary practices...Read more -
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility
at the Guggenheim Museum Oct 20, 2023 - Apr 7, 2024Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility will present works of art that feature partially obscured or hidden figures, thus positioning them...Read more -
Faith Ringgold: Freedom to Say What I Please
at the Worcester Art Museum Oct 7, 2023 - Mar 17, 2024For six decades, Faith Ringgold has created art to investigate her place in the world, particularly her experiences as a Black woman in America. Deeply...Read more -
Faith Ringgold: Black is beautiful
at the Picasso Museum, Paris Jan 31 - Jul 2, 2023Faith Ringgold is a major figure in American feminist art, from the civil rights struggles to those of Black Lives Matter, and the author of...Read more
Art Fairs
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Art Basel Unlimited
Faith Ringgold: The Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro Jun 10 - 16, 2024Booth U52 We are delighted to present Faith Ringgold's installation, The W ake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro, in collaboration with Goodman Gallery. The...Read more -
Expo Chicago
Faith Ringgold: Prints and Editions Apr 11 - 14, 2024Booth 357 EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, features leading international galleries alongside the highest quality platform for contemporary art and...Read more -
Frieze Masters
Faith Ringgold booth - MW3 Oct 11 - 15, 2023This is the premier of Modern Women, a new themed section curated by Camille Morineau (Co- founder of non-profit organization AWARE – Archive of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions). Dedicated to solo exhibitions by women artists, Modern Women places a special focus on works created between 1880 and 1980, a pivotal period for women’s rights and feminism.Read more -
The Armory Show
Booth 333 Sep 6 - 10, 2023This group exhibition explores the ways in which female artists in the 20th and 21st century have used fiber and textile as an integral part of their practice. The presentation examines how women have used the media to explore a range of topics including the natural world, politics, personal history and identity.Read more
Video
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