Faith Ringgold Research Paper

Faith Ringgold is an African American artist and author who is most popular for her painted story quilts. She was born on October eighth, nineteen thirty and is the youngest of three children. Ringgold was born and raised in Harlem, New York City and was creatively influenced by her mother’s career as a fashion designer. As a child, she grew up with chronic asthma which limited her ability to go outside, and expose herself to heavy physical activity. However, her mother entertained her with sewing lessons, and provided her with crayons to encourage visual arts as a positive pastime. Also, Ringgold’s father was an avid storyteller, which enhanced her creativity starting at a very early age. She explains, during her youth she grew up during the …show more content…
For example, “The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles” is a colorful painted quilt showing a group of African American women proudly displaying their sunflower quilt while standing in a sunflower field. Vincent Van Gogh is painted in the background behind the women holding a vase of sunflowers. Ringgold combines the race of African American women with the art history of Van Gogh. Aspects throughout her quilt include the bright colors of blue and yellow and also the image of sunflowers, which is very popular in Van Gogh’s work. In her later years of work, she continued to portray images of slavery, racism, and sexism however, she combined her folk-inspired style with aspects of abstract expressionism and pop art. Ringgold was inspired by Andy Warhol and his technique of repeating popular culture images. This encouraged Ringgold to use brighter colors, and the relationship of these colors forced her viewer’s eye to move around the whole piece. Specifically, her one work titled, “Picnic on the Grass… Alone” from the series, “The American Collection” incorporates natural and geometric forms along with decorative patterns and textures. The colors orange and yellow throughout the image exemplify the blues and greens to give an overall warm and peaceful

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Faith Ringgold Research Paper