Faith Ringgold

Explore the life and art of Faith Ringgold (October 8, 1930 – April 13, 2024): her journey from Harlem to global acclaim, her pioneering story quilts, activism, books, and lasting influence in art and culture.

Introduction

Faith Ringgold, born October 8, 1930, was a trailblazing American artist, author, sculptor, performance artist, and educator whose work fused storytelling, politics, and craft. She is best known for her narrative quilts—artworks combining painting, fabric, and text—that illuminate the experiences of Black Americans, especially Black women. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Ringgold defied expectations of what art “should be,” advocating for racial and gender equity within the arts while creating deeply personal, visually vibrant works.

Ringgold’s art speaks both to her own life and the broader history of social struggle and cultural memory. Her voice continues to resonate as a guidepost for artists, activists, and storytellers.

Early Life and Family

Faith Willi Jones was born in Harlem, New York City in 1930.

Her mother, Willi Posey, was a fashion designer and seamstress, and her father, Andrew Louis Jones, held a variety of jobs.

Because of chronic asthma in her childhood, she was often homebound and turned increasingly to drawing, painting, and imaginative play. Her family environment, combining craft tradition and artistic curiosity, set the stage for her later innovations.

Education and Early Artistic Development

Ringgold pursued formal art education at City College of New York (CCNY), where she earned a Bachelor of Science (1955) and Master of Arts (1959), both in art education or visual arts.

During her college years, she studied with prominent artists such as Robert Gwathmey and Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and was introduced to printmaking via Robert Blackburn.

After completing her degrees, she taught in New York City public schools while continuing her own art practice.

Artistic Career, Innovation & Major Works

Paintings & Early Political Art

In the early 1960s, Ringgold’s mature voice began to emerge. She began her influential American People series in 1963, using a style she called “Super Realism” to explore racial tensions and social dynamics from Black women’s perspectives.

Notable works from this period include The Flag Is Bleeding (1967) and Die / American People #20 (1967)—bold, confrontational works that challenged viewers to face racial injustice.

However, Ringgold found that as a Black woman, acceptance in traditional painting spheres was limited. She turned increasingly to other media where her stories could more freely live.

Emergence of Story Quilts

From the 1970s onward, Ringgold pioneered what she called story quilts — fabric works that combine painting, text, narrative, and quilting traditions.

One of her best-known works is Tar Beach (1988), a quilt that narrates a dreamlike flight over New York City. It was adapted into a children’s book, winning multiple awards.

She also produced The French Collection (1991–1997), a multi-panel quilt series that reimagined art history from her own perspective, weaving in autobiographical and cultural commentary. The American Collection (1997), continuing her narrative arc.

Other significant quilts include The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles (1996) and many others combining vivid color, strong composition, and social narrative.

Sculpture, Performance & Mixed Media

Ringgold’s creative scope extended beyond quilting. She created masks, soft sculptures, and costumed performance pieces. The Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro (1976) responded to U.S. bicentennial celebrations by critiquing racial inequality.

Her sculptures included portrait masks and soft figures, often animated or wearable.

Writing & Children’s Books

Ringgold was also a prolific author. She wrote and illustrated around 17 children’s books, many tied to her quilt narratives, including Tar Beach, Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad, Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House, and more. Her books blend imaginative storytelling with social consciousness, introducing young readers to themes of freedom, belonging, and identity.

Her memoir, We Flew Over the Bridge: Memoirs of Faith Ringgold, was published in 1995 and gives insight into her life, influences, struggles, and creative evolution.

Activism, Feminism & Representation

Faith Ringgold was not just an artist of color—she was an activist demanding visibility and equity in the predominantly white, male-dominated art world.

• In 1968, she joined the Ad Hoc Women’s Art Committee in protest of a Whitney Museum modernist exhibition that excluded women and Black artists.

• She co-founded Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL) with her daughter Michele Wallace, and participated in Where We At (a collective of Black women artists) to combat marginalization.

• She lectured, protested, and spoke publicly about art institutions’ exclusion of African American and women artists, insisting that museums include work by Black women as part of the core narrative.

• She argued for the blending of “high art” and craft, embracing quilting and textile media to challenge hierarchies.

Through these efforts, she helped open doors for generations of artists who had been sidelined.

Later Years, Death & Recognition

In 1987, Ringgold accepted a professorship at University of California, San Diego, teaching in visual arts until her retirement in 2002. 80 awards, 23 honorary doctorates, and broad institutional recognition.

Major retrospectives featured her work widely. In 2022, the New Museum in New York staged a retrospective that traveled to San Francisco, Paris (Musée Picasso), and Chicago.

Faith Ringgold passed away on April 13, 2024, at her home in Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of 93.

Her works are held in major museum collections: Guggenheim, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and many more.

Legacy and Influence

Faith Ringgold’s legacy is multidimensional:

• Redefining artistic media: She elevated quilting, textiles, and narrative art as serious fine art, challenging rigid boundaries.

• Voicing Black women’s stories: Her quilts and books center the lives, dreams, and struggles of Black women, embedding cultural memory in art.

• Institutional change: Through her activism, she helped push museums and galleries to diversify their collections and acknowledge marginalized voices.

• Inspiring artists: Many contemporary artists cite her as a direct influence in blending craft, narrative, identity, and activism.

• Cultural resonance: Tar Beach and her quilts continue to be taught in schools, exhibited, and celebrated as symbols of resilience and possibility.

• Durable voice: Her model of art + activism remains relevant in dialogues about race, gender, and representation today.

Artistic and Personal Insights

• Ringgold often said her art was autobiographical, reflecting her observations and experience in real time.

• She encouraged artists to “find your voice” and not worry about acceptance—her work often pushed against institutional norms.

• Her willingness to use “women’s media” (quilting, fabric) was both aesthetic and political—embracing what some dismissed as “craft” as a powerful expressive tool.

• She believed in educating others—and her years as a teacher influenced how she constructed visual narratives that teach and uplift.

• Her storytelling approach—image plus text—invites viewers to engage both visually and intellectually.

Memorable Quotes

Here are a few powerful quotes attributed to Faith Ringgold:

“My process is designed to give us ‘colored folk’ and women a taste of the American dream straight up. Since the facts don’t do that too often, I decided to make it up.”

“In 1983 I began writing stories on my quilts as an alternative. That way … people could still read my stories.”

“It is important to understand that we have to make images about ourselves. We have to claim the right to define ourselves.”

“I always do what is honest to me.”

These reflect her commitment to self-definition, narrative, and truth in art.

Lessons from Faith Ringgold’s Life

From her journey, we can draw many lessons:

1. Redefine boundaries
   Don’t accept the limits others set—craft, art, and narrative can transcend categories.

2. Tell your own stories
   The dominant narratives often exclude you; write, stitch, sing the stories you live.

3. Art is activism
   Works of beauty and vision can also demand justice and visibility.

4. Persistence matters
   Her recognition came gradually. She kept creating, pushing, and teaching.

5. Bridge generations
   She taught, mentored, and inspired others to carry the torch of inclusive art.

6. Embrace hybrid practices
   In combining media—paint, fabric, sculpture, performance—she modeled that one needn’t be confined to one medium.

Conclusion

Faith Ringgold’s life and work stand as a testament to the power of art to tell personal and collective histories, to disrupt exclusion, and to reimagine possible futures. Her narrative quilts, writings, performances, and activism form a rich tapestry of resilience, voice, and vision.