Faith Ringgold

How this artist’s work relates to your own creative practice.

I think the primary way in which Faith Ringgold’s work relates to my own creative practice is through the fact that she makes use of several different media in her work. Her art spans from paintings, to story quilts, to sculptures, and performance art. Personally, in the endeavour to experiment as much as possible, I too enjoy making use of a variety of materials.

Moreover, I find the way that she translates her conceptual ideas into images to be very interesting as she conveys political ideas in ways that are sometimes subtle, yet very convincing of her message. This is a facet of her work that I am keen to further explore and emulate in mine.

Connections you can make between the artist’s work and the framework of this class.

One of the main keywords that we have been exploring often in this class is “materiality.” This is a facet that is very prominent in the work of Faith Ringgold, as is evidenced by the diversity of her material practice. To me, it is clear that she fully takes advantage of the symbolism and meaning that each material is able to effect on her audience in order to convey a message. For example,  her paintings capture very specific social dynamics or circumstances, and by using the medium of paint she conveys the omnipresence of the ideas she is attempting to portray and captures moments in a very static way. Similarly, using masks / soft sculptures in her Family of Women Series really serves to personify the characters that she is depicting and give them a sense of life.

Additionally, the words “self” and “society” are predominant both in this class and in Faith Ringgold’s work. A significant portion of her art, especially her recent quilts are an amalgamation of her political views as communicated by her personal experiences in society, specifically what she observed growing up in Harlem. Her work is thus almost a perfect response to the question posed in our course keywords assignment of how the self is influenced by society.

How research, reading, or writing informs their work or their process.

Writing actually plays a significant role in Ringgold’s work. Her experimentation with quilts (arguably her most famous works) actually began after she unsuccessfully attempted to have her autobiography published. Drawing her inspiration from Tibetan tankas, and her mother’s early influence (as she was a seamstress), Ringgold translated the messages of her autobiography into assembled quilts, the first one being Echoes of Harlem pictured above. She later went on to even incorporate text into her quilts, as can be seen in Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima?.

Furthermore, later in her career Ringgold also published her own children’s book Tar Beach, which she adapted from her quilt of the same name. She has also published her memoir, We Flew over the Bridge and has written and illustrated more than 15 other children’s books.

Meaningful connections between their work and the work of another artist/creative.

To me, the aesthetic, concepts, and motivations of Ringgold’s art are very reminiscent of Indian artist Jamini Roy. As an artist, Roy’s goals were to capture the essence of simplicity embodied in the life of the folk people, to make art accessible to a wider section of people, and to give Indian art its own identity. I believe this underlying message of representation is one that is heavily reflected in the work of both artists.

Moreover, the formal qualities of the paintings of both artists also seem to be quite similar to me. Both Ringgold and Roy make use of earthier colours, as well as place significant emphasis on the faces and actions of the characters depicted.

Faith Ringgold Images from:
https://www.faithringgold.com/art/ (Links to an external site.)

Jamini Roy Image from:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/jamini-roy/drummers-a–ZQvZ_vz0N5szKD9CGBjg2