Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold (born Faith Willi Jones; October 8, 1930 – April 12, 2024) was an American painter, painting on different materials including fabric, author, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, and intersectional activist, perhaps best known for her narrative quilts.
Faith Ringgold | |
|---|---|
Ringgold in her studio in 1999 | |
| Born | Faith Willi Jones October 8, 1930 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 12, 2024 (aged 93) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education | City College of New York |
| Known for | Painting Textile arts Children's Books |
| Notable work | The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding (1967) The American People Series #20: Die (1967) Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima? (1983) Tar Beach (1991) The French Collection (1991–1997) The American Collection (1997) |
| Movement | Feminist art movement, Civil rights |
| Spouses | Robert Earl Wallace
(m. 1950; div. 1954)Burdette Ringgold
(m. 1962; died 2020) |
| Children | 2, including Michele Wallace |
| Awards | 2009 Peace Corps Award |
Ringgold was born in Harlem and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the City College of New York. She was an art teacher in the New York City public school system. As a multimedia artist, her works explored themes of family, race, class, and gender. Her series of story quilts, designed from the 1980s on, captured the experiences of Black Americans and became her signature art form. During her career, she promoted the work of Black artists and rallied against their marginalization by the art museums. She wrote and illustrated over a dozen children's books. Ringgold's art has been exhibited throughout the world and is in the permanent collections of The Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.