Faith Ringgold & Betye Saar

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Faith Ringgold

B. 1930, New York. Lives and works in La Jolla, California, and Englewood, New Jersey.

From Vida L. Brown, Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, California African American Museum:

Grounded and well-spoken at the age of 88, Faith Ringgold has an internal flame that is yet to be extinguished. As an artist, activist, author, and educator, Ringgold tells stories via various genres. She captures and displays the history of African Americans who continue to thrive despite years of disparaging characterizations, deplorable physical treatment, and ignored civil rights.

The 1960s was a notable period in Ringgold’s art career. During that time, she commenced painting the “American People Series” (1963–67), which illustrated the Civil Rights Movement from a woman’s perspective. Over the decades, Ringgold continues to demonstrate the marginalization of women of color. Yet her relentless nature also lets viewers rejoice in the documentation of African American history. More importantly, Ringgold continues to pave the way for women artists. Her art is a voice that will not be silenced.

Betye Saar

B. 1926, Los Angeles. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

From Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director, The Showroom, London:

Betye Saar has contributed significantly to black aesthetics, from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s through today. Her trajectory has been marked by a poetic and incisive sense of re-appropriation and agency. Political gesture is visible in all her assemblages. As she transforms everyday objects into artworks, she advocates profound shifts in economic, political, and cultural institutions. Ultimately, she hopes to instigate social change. That strong activist dimension in Saar’s work, her extraordinary freedom to articulate and claim ownership, her celebratory use of ritual and spiritual icons in the production of new epistemologies, and her pioneering approach to so-called black feminist thought are some of the fundamental aspects of an extraordinary oeuvre.

 

artsy.net