thinking question; if you were faith ringgold, an african american artist, what would you do for the children? hint lession is letter to an author. class 4 question
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Faith Ringgold is an African-American artist and author who was born in 1930 in Harlem, New York City, and who is best known for her large, painted story quilts. As a child, she was taught to sew fabrics creatively by her mother, a professional fashion designer; and to make quilts by her great-great-grandmother. Ringgold's great-great-great grandmother had been a slave in her younger years, and made quilts for her white masters. There has been a strong African-American quilt-making tradition, influenced by the weaving done by the men in Africa, and brought to America with the slaves, where women continued the tradition. Quilts in the African-American slave community served various purposes: warmth, preserving memories and events, storytelling, and even as "message boards" for the Underground Railroad to guide slaves on their way north to freedom. Some techniques common to African-American quilts included patchwork, applique and 'crazy' quilt; some characteristics included asymmetrical designs, bright colors and bold geometric shapes, which were spiritual symbols.
In 1950, she began studying art at New York's City College, concentrating on painting. When she graduated, she began teaching art in the New York City public schools. She had also married, and eventually had two daughters. She received her Master's degree in fine art in 1961. Soon after this, she went to Europe with her mother and her two daughters, to study the masters - Picasso, Matisse, Monet, and others. On her return, she began to paint seriously. This was in the early 1960's, when the Civil Rights movement was becoming a major force in American society, affecting her and her work greatly. In the later '60's, her work also reflected the turmoil and change all over the country, in bold, graphic images in dark colors which reflected both the dark skin of African-Americans, and perhaps the dark times. (See Illustration 1 below.) She became acquainted with feminist ideas during this time also, and worked as an activist for social change for women and blacks, particularly with regard to the American art museum system, which often omitted African-Americans and women from its exhibitions on a de facto basis. In one of her later paintings, of her children in a European art museum (Dancing at the Louvre), the children played under the "masterpieces," not paying all that much attention. Underlying this wry observation, however, was the more serious reality of the absence of black people in the European art tradition, particularly women. The artists and the human images presented were almost all white - where did this leave a serious African-American student or artist, who surely would feel that this tradition, like others in society, blocked his/her entrance to it?
In the 1970's, Ringgold continued to use her art to tell her own story, and in collaboration with her mother, began to sew fabric borders around her paintings, instead of stretching the canvas over wooden stretchers in the traditional manner. (She had seen this done in Tibetan paintings, called tankas.) Eventually, she and her mother produced a quilt together, a grid of 30 portraits of Harlem residents. When her mother died the following year, Ringgold decided to continue the family tradition of storytelling and history through writing, resulting in her first "story" quilt, called Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima? This piece told the story of a successful businesswoman, Aunt Jemima, in an attempt to reverse a negative African-American stereotype of black women. These pieces combine acrylic painting on canvas, quilted fabric and storytelling, often a handwritten text which frames the painted image. She also began to write stories for children, such as Tar Beach, which told the story of her childhood in Harlem, when her family ate and played cards on the roof on hot evenings. She had first told this story in a quilt/painting in 1988, which was seen by a publisher who suggested that she tell the story in book form,
In 1950, she began studying art at New York's City College, concentrating on painting. When she graduated, she began teaching art in the New York City public schools. She had also married, and eventually had two daughters. She received her Master's degree in fine art in 1961. Soon after this, she went to Europe with her mother and her two daughters, to study the masters - Picasso, Matisse, Monet, and others. On her return, she began to paint seriously. This was in the early 1960's, when the Civil Rights movement was becoming a major force in American society, affecting her and her work greatly. In the later '60's, her work also reflected the turmoil and change all over the country, in bold, graphic images in dark colors which reflected both the dark skin of African-Americans, and perhaps the dark times. (See Illustration 1 below.) She became acquainted with feminist ideas during this time also, and worked as an activist for social change for women and blacks, particularly with regard to the American art museum system, which often omitted African-Americans and women from its exhibitions on a de facto basis. In one of her later paintings, of her children in a European art museum (Dancing at the Louvre), the children played under the "masterpieces," not paying all that much attention. Underlying this wry observation, however, was the more serious reality of the absence of black people in the European art tradition, particularly women. The artists and the human images presented were almost all white - where did this leave a serious African-American student or artist, who surely would feel that this tradition, like others in society, blocked his/her entrance to it?
In the 1970's, Ringgold continued to use her art to tell her own story, and in collaboration with her mother, began to sew fabric borders around her paintings, instead of stretching the canvas over wooden stretchers in the traditional manner. (She had seen this done in Tibetan paintings, called tankas.) Eventually, she and her mother produced a quilt together, a grid of 30 portraits of Harlem residents. When her mother died the following year, Ringgold decided to continue the family tradition of storytelling and history through writing, resulting in her first "story" quilt, called Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima? This piece told the story of a successful businesswoman, Aunt Jemima, in an attempt to reverse a negative African-American stereotype of black women. These pieces combine acrylic painting on canvas, quilted fabric and storytelling, often a handwritten text which frames the painted image. She also began to write stories for children, such as Tar Beach, which told the story of her childhood in Harlem, when her family ate and played cards on the roof on hot evenings. She had first told this story in a quilt/painting in 1988, which was seen by a publisher who suggested that she tell the story in book form,
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