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Painter

Some Notable Works: The Flag Is Bleeding; Flag for the Moon; Die Nigger; Mommy & Daddy and Soul Sister

Committed to a revolutionary perspective both in politics and in aesthetics, Faith Ringgold is a symbolic expressionist whose stark paintings are acts of social reform directed toward educating the consciousness of her audience. Her most intense focus had been upon the problematic of being black in America. Her works highlight the violent tensions which tear at American society, including the discrimination suffered by women.

Born in Harlem in 1934, she was raised by parents who took care to make sure that she would enjoy the benefits of a good education. She attended the City College of New York, receiving her B. S. in 1955 and her masters in Fine Arts in 1959.

Her boldly political work has been well-received and widely shown. She has had several one-person shows, the first in 1968, and her paintings are included in the collections of the Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City; the Museum of Modern Art; the Bank Street College of Education, New City; and Melvin van Peebles.

In 1972 Ringgold become one of the founders of the Women Students and Artists for Black Liberation, an organization whose principal goal is to make sure that all exhibitions of black artists give equal space to paintings by men and women. In line with her interest in sexual parity, she has donated a large mural depicting the roles of women in American society to the Women's House of Detention in Manhattan.

Aesthetically, she believes that "black art must use its own color black to create its light, since that color is the most immediate black truth." Her most recent paintings have been an attempt to give pictorial realization to this vision.