keep the faith
... Later she received her Master's degree in fine art in 1961. Soon after this, she went to Europe with her mother and her two daughters, to study the who were to be called the masters of art - Picasso, Matisse, Monet, and others. On returning to the United States, Faith Ringgold began to paint seriously, although because of the time period being the 1960’, the time of the great Civil Rights Movement, was affecting her and her work exceedingly. In the later 60's, her work also reflected the turmoil and change all over the country, in bold, graphic images in dark colors which reflected both the dark skin of African-Americans, and perhaps the dark times. She became acquainted with feminist ideas during this time also, and worked as an activist for social change for women and blacks, particularly with regard to the American art museum system, which often omitted African-Americans and women from its exhibitions. The artists and the human images presented were almost all white. This left many African-American artist out of the art scene. Many African-American artists felt that this tradition like others of the American society blocked their entrance into the art world. Faith Ringgold is an African American artist who’s work began to dominant in the 1960’s until the present. Ringgold’s major medium of art is quilt work. She often draws and paints on her quilts. The significance of her work is that she tells a story on her quilts which includes words on the quilt. One of her more famous works is The Purple Quilt. It is panted acrylic on tie-dyed and printed fabric and then all the pieces are pieced together to make the quilt and tell the story. In this work she depi...