Faith Ringgold and the Painting
Two Artworks, Three Stories and One Courageous Woman
My favorite uncle, Uncle Greg, made a surprise appearance on Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time I saw him in a decade, so I caught him up on my art. As I told him about the themes in my work (fragility, death, time, cycles), he said he wished he were thinking about these things in his thirties. Since graduating from high school, my uncle Greg has served in the US Army (I have a strong military family). He didn’t have the opportunity to think about or be anything else.
I told him, “Your generation walked so we could run. I can think about these things because of the sacrifices y’all made for us.”
Lately, I’ve been questioning what I must do in my life and art so that the next generation can sprint. What am I doing to be a reference point for someone else? These questions lead to more questions, but in particular, they lead me to artist Faith Ringgold. Even after her death, her life and work continue to spark a fire in me.
I recently attended a screening at the Maryland Governor’s House for her documentary, Paint Me a Road Out of Here. An invitation was sent my way through the director of my MFA program, Bill Gaskins, who was on a panel with the documentary’s director, Catherine Gund. It was a night that pushed me to finally grieve the death of Faith Ringgold, while also reminding me of the urgent necessity of art that speaks to the times. It is one of the most crucial ways we preserve and remember history.
We must remember the change we want to see will probably not happen in our lifetime, but it is still our responsibility to create and dream of the world we want to live in for future generations.
In this Artletter, I write about collecting Faith Ringgold’s The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles and the documentary on her painting, For the Women’s House. I do not dive into her life and history, but instead, I have included links to past shows, interviews, and books.
I hope this Artletter inspires you.
In the words of Faith Ringgold,
“When someone says you can’t do something, do more of it, accelerate it.”
With Love,
Ciarra K. Walters
While on the panel, Bill compares my work to Faith Ringgold’s, calling me a mission, vision, and impact-driven artist. It was an honor and the fuel I needed.
The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles
At twenty-three years old, I was first introduced to Faith Ringgold’s work at the California African American Museum (CAAM). I saw her 1997 silkscreen print, The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles. It was a reproduction of her 1991 story quilt painting, The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles: The French Collection Part I, #4. I remember reading the tiny words on the print and immediately starting to sob. It was the first time an artwork moved me to tears.
In The Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles, (from left to right) Madame C.J. Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Buthane, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Ella Baker gather in a field of sunflowers to make a quilt. Van Gogh, holding a vase of sunflowers, watches them, and they watch him back.
The story begins with this: “The National Sunflowers Quilters Society of America are having quilting bees in sunflower fields around the world to spread the cause of freedom.”
Weaving fiction and fact, Ringgold tells a story about an artist named Willia Marie (whom I think is Ringgold), who is sent by her Aunt Melissa to watch over these women in Arles. Every paragraph reveals what each woman has done to “transform this country (usa) piece by piece”.
At the end, Willia Marie ends with this: “I am so thankful to my Aunt Melissa for sending you wonderful women to me. Art can never change anything the way you have. But it can make a picture so everyone can see and know our true history and culture, from the art. Someday I will make you women proud of me, too. Just wait, you’ll see.”
From this artwork, I walked away knowing more about these pivotal, historical female figures and how Ringgold became who she said she would at the end of this story.
At that time in my life, I was new to LA and didn’t know how I would survive out there or why I was there. But my heart told me I was supposed to be there. Seeing this piece and reading those words, I remember thinking, if these women, who faced greater hardships than I, could shake up the world, I could too. I just had to believe.
Over the years, my memory has returned to that feeling and this artwork in my hardest moments.
After my mother Eileen transitioned, I purchased The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles for her 48th birthday.
This was my first big-girl art purchase. I knew this print had to start my art collection because it was an artwork that changed my life, even when it was physically absent. I always remembered it.
I wanted to see those women and Ringgold’s words before I walked out my front door every day. I wanted my sisters to see it. Even if they didn’t read the words, that piece was there for them to visit whenever they were called to it.
Those women in that print are now in our space, and like Eileen, there is no denying the power and energy they bring into our all-female household. On my worst days, those women are there pushing me to continue my work. They remind me to be daring, to be empowering, and to be courageous.
We become the change we want to see. Faith Ringgold was the first artist who showed me that.
On page eight in this PDF, you can read the text on The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, along with the other story quilts Ringgold made.
Paint Me a Road Out of Here
In the documentary Paint Me a Road Out of Here, director Catherine Gund takes us between two stories: the journey of Faith Ringgold’s 1971 painting For the Women’s House and the life of artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter. Between archival footage and interviews, the documentary reveals the parallels between the incarceration of Ringgold’s work at Rikers Island and Baxter’s art practice around her previous incarceration.
Over the years, I have watched almost every Faith Ringgold online interview and talk. I was familiar with the history of For the Women’s House, but after seeing this documentary, I realized I was missing a lot of information. The Archive of Destruction wrote an excellent (short) article about the history of the painting and the documentary. I will briefly list a few key moments from the documentary.
After winning a grant to create an art piece for a public institution in New York City, Faith Ringgold chose the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island. Spending countless hours interviewing and interacting with the women there, she asked them what they wanted to see. One woman responded, “Show me a way out of here.”
Running with that phrase, Ringgold painted an eight-by-eight-foot mural of a world that had yet to exist for women. In 1971, women were not allowed to be bus drivers, priests, professional athletes, politicians, construction workers, or doctors, but here those women were in Ringgold’s painting.
Years later, when the women’s prison became the men’s prison, the painting remained there. By chance, a former correctional officer (C.O.), Barbara Drummond, visited the facilities and noticed the painting was missing. When Drummond asked a male C.O. about the painting, he responded, saying that they were “tired of looking at all those bitches”. *gasp*
After constant questioning, she finally finds Ringgold’s missing work in the staff kitchen, covered in white paint. She gets in contact with Ringgold (looking her up at the Schromeberg Center in Harlem) and tells her what happened. Drummond helped her save the work.
Luckily, the white paint was a removable water-based paint, and the painting was fully restored. After that, Ringgold wanted it back, but the New York City Department of Corrections refused to return it. Instead, it was sealed with a plexiglass frame, and for decades, it was put on display, where it was either inaccessible to the inmates or hard to view.
In 2017, For the Women’s House was featured in the Brooklyn Museum’s group exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85. While on loan from Rikers, Ringgold publicly made it known that she wanted her work out of there and in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum. They still would not give it up.
By the end of the documentary, we find out that Riker’s Island was scheduled to be destroyed (it still exists). In fear that the painting would be destroyed with it, the Brooklyn Museum, and New York City’s former Mayor, Bill de Blasio, managed to facilitate a 10-year loan from the N.Y.C. Department of Corrections to the Brooklyn Museum.
We may never know why the NYC Department of Corrections refuses to return a gifted painting, but I think this is proof of the power art can and does have.
An end and a beginning:
What struck me from the documentary was a moment between Ringgold and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter. Baxter asked her how she was able to do it all — be a mother, an artist, and travel. Ringgold responded, saying she didn’t have to worry about that because she wasn’t getting opportunities. The doors weren’t open. They were closed, and when she finally got into a room, they closed that door and moved to another room.
It wasn’t until the last decade of her life that she finally received the respect, admiration, and love her work deserved. At 93, Faith Ringgold passed away on April 13, 2024, the day after the debut of my thesis show, Eileen’s Daughter. I found out she transitioned in the gallery, in front of my own work.
We seem to lose great Black artists too soon, but we have been fortunate enough to know Faith Ringgold’s experiences, struggles, triumphs, and art practice through her voice and her words.
In her interviews, there is no sugar coating how she was treated in the art world (and by Black male artists). We know her truth, from her. From the racism to the sexism, Ringgold gambled on herself and continued to make art when she was shown little to no appreciation, attention, or financial gain.
How many artists in the spotlight today can say they could do the same thing?
Who would I be without Faith Ringgold and her unwavering courage and dedication to her artwork?
Rest in peace to a legend, an icon, a guiding light, Faith Ringgold.
Exhibitions:
Faith Ringgold: American People
In 2022, the New Museum gave us three floors and over five decades of Faith Ringgold’s work. One of my favorite shows to date! Ringgold also got to see this show before her death. *prayer hands* Check out the gallery images and text here.
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85
On the Brooklyn Museum’s website, you will find the text and images of the artwork from the exhibition. This is one of my favorite group exhibitions. I love that it is accessible for everyone to see and return to.
Interviews + Talks:
Books:
Faith Ringgold Die
Faith Ringgold Die is a short book by MoMA, focused on Ringgold’s 1967 painting, American People Series #20: Die.
Faith Ringgold American People
This is the official catalogue for the New Museum’s 2022 exhibition Faith Ringgold American People. Get it while it is still in print!
Tar Beach
Tar Beach is a classic to collect for yourself, your child, or someone else.
Thank you so much, Sag soul sistalove artist and writer Ciarra, for writing a beautiful essay. I needed to read it as Theresa's Daughter.