![]() ![]() The great pleasure in viewing so much of Ringgold’s art is learning that she cannot be assigned to any one category, be it Black artist, textile artist, feminist, activist, conceptual artist or storyteller. While these bookends capture Ringgold’s desire to depict-not sugarcoat-the realities of life for Black women in America, her work does not exist solely within this context. The show ends with a series reflecting on her 1992 move from Harlem to a predominantly white suburb of New Jersey. The retrospective, curated by the New Museum, opens with a 1963 painting inspired by a racist encounter from the artist’s childhood. Hence, the incredible gift of Faith Ringgold: American People at the de Young, which allows all those audiences to see a life’s work beyond the limitations of a specific art history lecture or a passing glimpse at a narrowly focused museum show. Others may know only of her activism, much of it directed at New York institutions for failing to show Black women artists or hire Black curators. Meanwhile, children of the ’90s grew up reading Ringgold’s illustrated book Tar Beach, about her own childhood in Harlem. Many will be most familiar with her “story quilts,” which she began making in 1983 and which have toured extensively over the years. ![]() ![]() For 91-year-old Faith Ringgold, the breadth and volume of her artistic career has spawned any number of isolated fan clubs. ![]() When an artist has been creating work in various forms for six decades, that work becomes known to different audiences in different ways. ![]()
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