African American Art Archives

Faith Ringgold: Painting, Fiber Art, Sculpture

October 8, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

photo © Katherine McMahon 2015

Born on October 8, 1930, in Harlem, New York, Faith Ringgold is considered to be one of the most important living African American artists. Working in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, and performance, Ringgold is best known for her “story quilts” that combine narrative paintings with quilted borders and text.

Ringgold’s mother, a fashion designer and seamstress, nurtured her daughter’s creative abilities from a young age. Ringgold attended City College of New York where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and Education in 1955. She taught art in New York’s public schools from 1955 to 1973 and earned her Master’s degree in art in 1959. During this time, Ringgold also married and divorced jazz pianist Robert Earl Wallace with whom she had two daughters. In 1962, she was remarried to Burdette Ringgold.

Ringgold’s oil paintings and posters of the mid-to-late 1960s carried strong political messages and were supportive of the civil-rights movement. In 1970, she participated in a demonstration against the exclusion of black and women artists by New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. This resulted in the inclusion of Betye Saar and Barbara Chase-Riboud in the Whitney Sculpture Biennial, making them the first black women ever to exhibit at the Museum.

In the early 1970s, Ringgold abandoned traditional painting and began making unstretched acrylic paintings on canvas with soft cloth frames after viewing an exhibition of Tibetan art at the Rijk Museum in Amsterdam. During this time, Ringgold also began lecture tours and traveling exhibitions to colleges and universities around the United States. In 1973, she retired from teaching altogether to continue touring and create art full time.

In 1983, Ringgold began to combine images and handwritten text in her painted “story quilts,” which conveyed imaginative narratives. In 1984, a 20-year retrospective of her work was held at The Studio Museum in Harlem. That same year, Ringgold also became a professor at the University of California, San Diego, a position that she still holds today.

Over the course of her career, Ringgold has published 12 children’s books including the award winning “Tar Beach” which is based on her story quilt. As well, a book of her memoirs was published in 1995. She has exhibited in major museums in the U.S., Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Ringgold is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art.

Retrospectives of Ringgold’s work have been held by Rutgers University, New Brunswick (1973), the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1984), and the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead (1990). Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions devoted to political art, women’s art, contemporary quilts, and African-American art, as well as in the Whitney Biennial (1985). Ringgold has received many honours, including the National Endowment for the Arts awards in sculpture (1978) and painting (1989), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1987), and fifteen honorary doctorates.

Ringgold currently lives and works in Englewood, New Jersey. To learn more, visit Faith Ringgold.com.

Sources: Guggenheim, Faith Ringgold.com

Alma Thomas: 1891-1978

September 22, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born on September 22, 1891, in Columbus, Georgia, Alma Woodsey Thomas grew up in a family that encouraged education and appreciation of literature and the arts. In 1907, the family moved to Washington D.C., partly due to the Atlanta race riots, but also because Washington had better education and employment opportunities for African Americans than most other cities at the time. That same year, Thomas enrolled at Armstrong Manual Training High School where she excelled at math, and was exposed to the visual arts.

Thomas attended Miner Normal School (today, the University of the District of Columbia) in 1911 studying kindergarten education. She received her teaching certificate in 1913 after which she taught for four years at Thomas Garrett Settlement House in Wilmington Delaware. Thomas returned to Washington in 1921 to study home economics at Howard University. Initially intending to pursue a career as a costume designer, she switched her studies to the newly created Fine Arts department and in 1924, became the first graduate of the program.

In 1925, Thomas began working as an art instructor at Shaw Junior High School in Washington D.C. – a career which she would remain at for 35 years. With a desire to cultivate appreciation for art in young people, Thomas organized the School Arts League based at Shaw as well as organizing the school’s first art gallery.

Between 1930 and 1934, Thomas earned her masters degree in Fine Arts Education from the teachers college at Columbia University. In 1943, she was vice-president of the Barnett Aden Gallery – the first private gallery to welcome art created by artists of any race, colour, or creed. While there, Thomas was able to increase her awareness of art trends and directions. As well, she was involved with the Little Paris Studio where artists met and worked together, improving their skills, exchanging critiques, and holding exhibitions.

Thomas initially painted realistic images but moved toward abstract painting in 1950, when at the age of 59, she returned to school, taking art classes at the American University. She studied with Robert Gates, Ben Summerford, and well-known painter Jacob Kainen with whom she became close friends. A passion for learning, Thomas continued her evening and weekend classes for ten years. During that time, her painting evolved from realism to cubism, abstract impressionism, and finally her own style of abstract art.

In 1960, Thomas retired from teaching to focus exclusively on her art. Her primary inspirations were her observations of nature and the abstract patterns of light created when shining through flowers and plants. Her paintings reflected this with their bold colours and short jagged brush strokes.

Thomas’s work began receiving recognition in the late 60s and early 70s. She had solo exhibitions at Howard and Fisk Universities, at the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington, and was included in the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program. In 1972, she was the first African American woman to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

From the 1970s onward, Thomas minimized the number of colours in her paintings and experimented with optical effects. Her brush strokes had the appearance of wedges and commas and created rhythmic patterns that often resembled mosaics. During these last years of her life, Thomas was challenged by arthritis and deteriorating eyesight, but she continued painting, drawing on nature and music for inspiration, up until her last days.

Alma Thomas died on February 24, 1978 in Washington D.C. from complications following surgery. Today, her paintings are on display in major art museums and university galleries across the United States. Her 1966 painting, Resurrection, currently hangs in the White House.

Sources: Alma W. Thomas: A Retrospective of the Paintings, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Romare Bearden: 1911 – 1988

September 2, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

The artist confronts chaos. The whole thing of art is, how do you organize chaos? —Romare Bearden

Born on September 2, 1911 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Romare Bearden was a multi-talented artist and one of America’s foremost collagists. Bearden’s family moved to New York City in 1914 in an attempt to distance themselves from Jim Crow’s “separate but equal” laws.

Bearden initially studied at Lincoln University but transferred to Boston University where he was the art director of Beanpot, a student humour magazine. He then completed his degree in education at New York University. At NYU, Bearden was enrolled in art classes and was a lead cartoonist and art editor for the monthly journal The Medley. During his university years, he published numerous journal covers and wrote many texts on social and artistic issues. Bearden also attended New York’s Art Students League, studying under German artist George Grosz. Bearden served in the United States Army between 1942 and 1945. He then returned to Europe in 1950 to study art and philosophy at the Sorbonne with the support of the GI Bill.

From the 1930s to the 1960s Bearden was a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services and worked on his art in his free time. He had his first successful solo exhibitions in Harlem in 1940 and in Washington DC in 1944. In 1954, he married dancer and choreographer Nanette Rohan, with whom he shared the rest of his life. During this time, Bearden was active in Harlem’s art scene and was a member of the Harlem Artists Guild.

Bearden was a prolific artist who experimented with numerous mediums including watercolours, oils, collage, photo montage, prints, and costume and set design. His inspiration was gathered from his lifelong study of art from the Western masters, African art, Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints, and Chinese landscape paintings. Bearden is best known for his collages which were featured on the covers of Time and Fortune magazines in 1968.

Bearden was active in numerous arts organizations and was a respected writer and spokesperson for the arts and for social causes. In 1964, he was appointed as art director of the African-American advocacy group, the Harlem Cultural Council. He was also involved in the establishment of art venues such as The Studio Museum and the Cinque Gallery that supported young minority artists. Bearden was also a founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters and was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972.

Bearden’s work is on display in major museums and galleries in the United States including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Bearden received numerous honorary degrees including doctorates from the Pratt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson College, Atlanta University, and others. He received the 1984 Mayor’s Award of Honour for Art and Culture in New York City, and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Ronald Regan in 1987.

Romare Bearden died in New York on March 12, 1988 from complications of bone cancer. His estate provided for the Romare Bearden Foundation which was established in 1990 and whose purpose is “to preserve and perpetuate” his legacy. The foundation also supports the “creative and educational development of young people and of talented and aspiring artists and scholars”.

Sources: Romare Bearden Foundation, National Gallery of Art, Artcyclopedia, New York Times, Wikipedia

5 Women Artists You Should Know: Vol. 6

July 8, 2010 By Wendy Campbell

1. Yayoi Kusama – March 22, 1929 – Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, Kusama is a sculptor, painter, writer, installation artist and performance artist. As a child she experienced hallucinations and visions of polka dots and net patterns, and had severe obsessive thoughts. Early in her career, she began covering surfaces including walls, floors, canvases, household objects, and naked assistants with the polka dots (“infinity nets”) that became a trademark of her work.

In 1957 Kusama moved to New York and quickly established a reputation for herself in predominantly male avant-garde art circles. She was very ambitious and used her position as a non-American woman and her history of mental illness to create a flamboyant public persona.

During her time in New York, her work was linked with both Minimalism and Pop Art, but it was never assimilated by any one artistic movement, as her work constantly evolved during this period. In 1973 she returned to Tokyo, where she began to write fiction.

After leaving New York, Kusama was almost forgotten until the late 1980’s and 90’s when a number of retrospectives renewed international interest. In 1993, she represented Japan in the Venice Biennale and in October 2006, she became the first Japanese woman to receive the Praemium Imperiale, one of Japan’s most prestigious prizes for internationally recognized artists.

2. Kara Walker – November 26, 1969 – Born in Stockton, California, Walker has a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that examine the underbelly of America’s racial and gender tensions. Her works often address themes such as power, repression, history, race, and sexuality.

In the 1997, Walker was included in the Whitney Biennial at the age of 27, and became the youngest recipient of the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant. In 2002 she was chosen to represent the United States in the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in the collections of major museums worldwide. In 2007 Walker Art Center organized the exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Oppressor, My Enemy, My Love – the artist’s first full-scale U.S. museum survey. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is a professor of visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University.

3. Elisabetta Sirani – January 8, 1638 – 1665 – Born in Bologna, Italy, Sirani was an independent painter by age 19, ran her family’s workshop, and supported supported her parents, three siblings, and herself entirely through her art after her father became incapacitated by illness.

Sirani quickly became known for her ability to paint beautifully finished canvases so quickly that art lovers visited her studio to watch her work. Her portraits, mythological subjects, and images of the Holy Family and the Virgin and Child, gained international fame. Her works were acquired by wealthy, noble, and even royal patrons, including the Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici.

Sirani died-suddenly at the age of 27, after experiencing severe stomach pains. Her father suspected that she had been poisoned by a jealous maid and the servant was tried but acquitted. An autopsy revealed stomach ulcers as the cause of death. In her short career, Sirani produced 200 paintings, drawings, and etchings.

4. Camille Claudel – December 8, 1864 – October 19, 1943 – Born in Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Claudel was a French sculptor, graphic artist, and the older sister of the French poet and diplomat, Paul Claudel. In 1881, she moved with her family to Paris. Claudel studied sculpture at the Académie Colarossi with Alfred Boucher and met Rodin in 1883. She became his studio assistant in 1885. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover.

Claudel ended her relationship with Rodin in 1898 and struggled for artistic independence. Overcome by an emotional crisis, she secluded herself in her studio and destroyed a large number of her works, accusing Rodin of plagarism. In 1913, her brother Paul had her confined to a psychiatric hospital and she lived in institutions for the remaining 30 years of her life.

Camille Claudel died on October 19, 1943. About 90 statues, sketches and drawings survive. She is considered by many to be the first important European female sculptor.

5. Tamara De Lempicka – May 16, 1898–March 18, 1980 – Born Tamara Maria Gorska in Warsaw, Poland, de Lempicka was a Polish Art Deco painter. In 1917, she and her husband Tadeusz Lempicki escaped the Russian Revolution and moved to Paris where she studied at the Academie Ranson and at the studio of cubist artist André Lhote. She quickly developed a style that combined neo-classical colours with cubism in the Art Deco style that was prominent in Paris at the time.

De Lempicka was one of the most sought after painters of the 1920’s and 30’s. From 1923 onwards, she exhibited in the major Salons and in the early 1930’s, American museums began purchasing her work. Focused constantly on her work and social life, Lempicka neglected her husband and daughter Kizette. “Famous for her libido, she was bisexual, and her affairs with both men and women were carried out in ways that were scandalous at the time.” Tamara and Tadeusz divorced in 1928.

In 1933, de Lempicka married her patron and lover Baron Raoul Kuffner and the couple moved to the U.S. in 1939. She continued to live in a lavish style but her popularity as a society painter diminished greatly. She continued to work in her trademark style but also began painting still lifes, abstracts, and started using a palette knife. Her exhibit in 1962 at the Iolas Gallery was not well-received and de Lempicka retired from active life as a professional artist. In 1978 Tamara moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to live among an aging international set and some of the younger aristocrats. She died there on March 19, 1980.

Sources: National Museum of Women in the Arts (Sirani), Walker Art Center (Walker), MoMA (Kusama), Walker Art Center (Kusama), Wikipedia (Kusama), NMWA (Claudel), Wikipedia (Claudel), 50 Women Artists You Should Know (Claudel, de Lempicka), Tamara-de-Lempicka.org