Ringgold grew up in Harlem during the Depression. She had asthma as a child and spent long stretches at home, where her mother, a fashion designer and dressmaker, taught her to work with fabric. Her great-grandmother had been a slave who made quilts. The lineage ran from plantation quilting to Harlem dressmaking to painted story quilts hanging in the Guggenheim.
Key facts
- Lived
- 1930–2024, American
- Movement
- Works held in
- 7 museums
Biography
She got a degree in fine arts from City College of New York in 1955 and an MA in 1959, then taught art in New York public schools for nearly two decades. In the 1960s she was painting large political canvases, the American People Series, that addressed race in America with a directness the gallery system was not ready for. Die, a twelve-foot mural of a race riot, was completed in 1967. She had difficulty getting it shown.
In 1972 she visited Amsterdam and saw a collection of Tibetan thangkas: narrative paintings on fabric, hung from cloth borders. This solved a problem she had been working on for years. She began making story quilts with her mother, Willi Posey: painted canvases bordered by quilted fabric, with stories written directly on the surface. Tar Beach, made in 1988, tells the story of a girl who flies over Harlem from her family's rooftop. She adapted it into a children's book that won a Caldecott Honour in 1992.
She co-founded Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation in 1970 and led demonstrations against the Whitney and MoMA that forced both institutions to exhibit Black artists. She was not polite about it, and she did not need to be.
She died in 2024, aged ninety-three.
Timeline
- 1930Born in Harlem, New York, on 8 October. Childhood asthma kept her home from school frequently, and her mother encouraged her to draw and experiment with colour during those long recuperations.
- 1955Graduated from the City College of New York at age 25 with degrees in fine art and education. Began teaching art in New York City public schools, a career she maintained for nearly two decades.
- 1967Completed her American People series at age 37 in New York, large-format paintings confronting racial tension and segregation in America. The works drew directly on the civil rights struggles unfolding across the country.
- 1970Co-founded Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation at age 40 with her daughter Michele in New York. The group challenged the exclusion of Black women artists from major museum exhibitions.
- 1980Created her first story quilt, Echoes of Harlem, at age 50, collaborating with her mother Willi Posey on the quilted fabric border. This new medium fused painting, textile craft and narrative storytelling into a form uniquely her own.
- 1991Published the children's book Tar Beach at age 61, adapted from her 1988 story quilt of the same name. It was named a Caldecott Honor Book and became one of the best-loved picture books in American children's literature.
- 2022The New Museum in New York staged a major retrospective, American People, when she was 92. The exhibition surveyed over six decades of painting, sculpture, quilts and performance.
- 2024Died on 13 April in Englewood, New Jersey, at age 93. She left behind a body of work that redefined the boundaries between fine art, craft and activism.
Notable Works
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Related Artists
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Frequently Asked Questions
Did faith ringgold go to art school?
Faith Ringgold got a degree in fine arts from City College of New York in 1955, and an MA in 1959. She also employed African art as her "classical" art form.Faith ringgold art movement?
Faith Ringgold played an instrumental role in organising protests and actions. The Black Art Movement artists are deeply committed to the images and forms in their work.How did faith ringgold die?
Faith Ringgold died in 2024 at the age of 94.How did faith ringgold make her quilts?
Faith Ringgold made story quilts with her mother, Willi Posey, which involved painted canvases bordered by quilted fabric, with stories written directly on the surface. In 1972, she saw a collection of Tibetan thangkas, narrative paintings on fabric, hung from cloth borders, which influenced her quilting.Is faith ringgold still alive?
No, Faith Ringgold died in 2024.Was faith ringgold part of the harlem renaissance?
Ringgold grew up in Harlem during the Depression, but the provided texts do not specify if she was part of the Harlem Renaissance.What is faith ringgold best known for?
Faith Ringgold is best known for her story quilts and her mission to explore new ways to express the changing social situation. Her straightforward depictions effectively etch the essence of these images in our minds, so much so that they have become American icons.What is faith ringgold famous for making?
Faith Ringgold is famous for making story quilts, painted canvases bordered by quilted fabric, with stories written directly on the surface. Her straightforward depictions effectively etch the essence of these images in our minds, so much so that they have become American icons.When did faith ringgold start making art?
Faith Ringgold decided to become an artist and believed that she, a Black woman, could penetrate the art scene. Starting in the mid-1960s, she developed a hard-edged style with a flat, relatively unarticulated paint surface.Where can i see faith ringgold's art?
Faith Ringgold's works can be seen at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and 2 other museums worldwide.Who was faith ringgold inspired by?
Faith Ringgold was inspired by African art, employing it as her "classical" art form instead of looking to Greece. She also saw a collection of Tibetan thangkas, narrative paintings on fabric, hung from cloth borders, which influenced her quilting.Why did faith ringgold become an artist?
Faith Ringgold decided to become an artist because she believed that she, a Black woman, could penetrate the art scene without sacrificing her Blackness, femaleness, or humanity.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Faith Ringgold.
- [1] book guggenheim-museum00solo Used for: biography.
- [2] book Norma Broude, The Expanding Discourse Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-17. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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