Faith Ringgold, "Tar Beach 2"


 This week is a total switch to something quite wonderful, but different from images looked at in the past.  It is a painted story quilt created by Faith Ringgold.   
  I am not pleased with how this image came out, it is not very sharp, but it is such an amazing work, let's give it a try.  I have discovered that making copies of most current works run into copyright issues, as seems to be the case with this one.  
    Faith Ringgold has an interesting history.  She is a very successful American artist reaching into several Art venues, including children's books.  Her first was the title of this quilt, Tar Beach.  She centers her art around the American Black experience.  Although she does paint, she also has chosen to create quilts to remove any association with traditional Western European and American cultural ideas.  Her quilts have that marvelous folk art tradition yet reach far beyond into a real visual pictorial delight.   
  Tar Beach 2 is a painted story of an actual person, Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who was 8 years old in 1990 when this quilt was made.  It shows her dream of flying over her apartment home in Harlem, New York, escaping her reality.  In the lower center we see the family on the building roof, some sitting at the table while children rest on a blanket to the left.  It must be a warm summer evening.  I encourage you to Google the image to get a sharp look at it. 
   Next Monday, I promise to select an image I can copy more precisely.  
   Tar Beach 2 is part of the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It measures 66 by 67 inches, and is made labeled as a multicolored screen print on several different fabrics: silk, cotton and a synthetic.  
                                   Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do.

Comments

  1. Char HarguthNovember 10, 2020 at 2:19 PM

    I remember looking at her work in Wednesday group! I looked her up, and am amazed at the amount, and the variety of her work. She not only told her story, but the story of many others. She was bold and confident, venturing into every avenue of life. Nothing deterred her from working in different media. I think her quilts are just fabulous. Colorful stories are told with such detail and excellence. Is she still alive? I see her dated to 2020!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Art Expert On LineNovember 14, 2020 at 7:32 AM

    Yes, she is 90 years old, living in New York City. Amazing woman! And, Sunday, November 15th is Wayne Thiebaud's 100 birthday! We covered Thiebaud's painiting "Sunset Streets", way back on September 22, 2019. It was my 24th entry. Happy Birthday, Wayne!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wayne Thiebaud, Sunset Streets

Image
   In giving title to this landscape, California artist, Wayne Thiebaud not only provides the location, but also the time of day.  Knowing that Thiebaud is a California artist provides the last clue to guessing the probably location.  Smartly, The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art purchased this painting for its permanent collection in 1986, a year after it was completed.  Sunset Streets is an oil on canvas measuring 48" x 35".      Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920 and resides in California. He is one of several artists creating a distinct California aesthetic using heavy pigment and exaggerated color.   He is best known for his commonplace objects, figures, and landscapes. of which this is a perfect example.    The composition of this work is amazing.  Right down the center, at a slight tilt is this blue-black stripe, K shape, beginning with a heavy base and capped with a large triangle of sorts.  The painting is a geometry lover's dream, completely dedicated to ever
Read more

Nature Abhors A Vacuum, Helen Frankenthraller

Image
  Today let us look at an acrylic painting on canvas by American artist Helen Frankenthraller (1928-2011).    Nature Abhors a Vacuum is a huge work of art measuring 103" high, 112" wide.  This is over 8 feet high and 9 feet long!  You can stand next to it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; and to do so would completely immerse yourself in this huge spread of color.   Nature Abhors a Vacuum was painted in 1973 and is a perfect example of a school of painting Frankenthraller helped develop called color field painting.  Here she stretched raw unprimed canvas on the floor and poured thinned acrylic paint on it.  In doing so she created floating fields of translucent color.  Being that the canvas was raw, the paint stuck to the fabric more like it was dyed, than brushed on. It was an exciting and new process!    Our title, Nature Abhors a Vacuum  immediately indicates a landscape, however I think it a disservice to confine our reaction to so simple an understan
Read more

Childe Hassam "The Avenue in Rain"

Image
    I probably should have saved this for the 4th of July, but that is a little far off and this work is among Childe Hassam's finest.      I have known of Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935) for a very long time, but only recently did Wikimedia straighten me out about the correct way to pronounce his first name.  It seems the "e" is silent; and his last name is pronounced as written, with two syllables.        From what I have read, Hassam was a pretty sharp guy, and possibly a little  arrogant.  He created 3,000 some works of art in his career and lived his entire adult life on the proceeds of their sale.  This is quite remarkable.  Most artists, (at least before 1930) had to supplement their income by teaching, commissioned portraits or careers outside the art field.  But Hassam figured out not only how to market his work, but also what subjects would be popular.  Timing is always a big issue, and he was at the forefront of marketing impressionist paintings to Americans.      
Read more