Stitching Stories and Shaping Narratives: The Artistic Odyssey of Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold grew up during the Harlem Renaissance (the revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, lit) along with her art. She was in the center of the blossoming revival after being displaced by the great migration. Because of Ringgold's illness, and chronic asthma, she spent plenty of time with her mother, who fostered the creative spirit that guides her work today—teaching her at a young age to sew-a now a staple of her art. 

Ringgold’s technique is an accumulation of her teachings from her maternal family and college. The work I’ve studied from Ringgold would be considered her trademark - Story-quilts. The technique combines a central image painted with acrylic paint (the image reflecting the history/subject matter) surrounded by sewed cloth (an African-American style she learned from her grandmother), distancing her art away from traditional European Fine Art. Her technique is connected to the history of her African American heritage, associated with the hidden messages from the underground railroad and freedom for slaves from the South.  

Ringgold’s art speaks on the black experience during the late 19 century, creating a movement of young black artists. Her art comments on racism, sexism, segregation, and black art (music, literature, art). Ringgold’s transparency conveyed through her art opened the door for newer more prolific artists, shifting the art world forever. Ringgold made the world notice, making art that speaks of herself, describing it as “a unique expression of life” (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco) through unexplored mediums. 

Ringgold’s piece, Dancing at the Louvre comes from her French Collection, inspired by her trip to the Louvre. The central image is a painting and the outer border is a quilted pattern, considered Ringgold’s specialty. This quilt, a part of a series of story-quilts, tells a fictional story of a young black woman who moves to Paris and her experiences of meeting many celebrities on her path to becoming an artist and business woman–taking from Ringgold’s own trifles of identity in a world of male-dominated European art. This piece in particular comments on the representation of African Americans in music and fine art. 

The quilt features a scene of people dancing in front of the Louvre, a festive scene full of loud colors, and traditional patterns. The characters are playing and dancing, blind to the classics hung up around them since the works around them don't have any importance to them (historically and visually).