Cover image: Entrance to Black Is Beautiful exhibition - oblique view
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

I didn’t want people to be able to look, and look away,
because a lot of people do that with art.
I want them to look and see.
I want to grab their eyes and hold them, because this is America.

~ Faith Ringgold

The self-quote above and five other self-quotes set the tone for what you will see in the rooms devoted to Black Is Beautiful - the Faith Ringgold exhibition that opened at the Musée Picasso on January 31, 2023.

Mounted in collaboration with the New Museum in NYC, it is the artist's first retrospective in Paris.

A few months ago I learned that this exhibition was coming to Paris, and I've been looking forward to seeing it ever since!

The Wells International Foundation (WIF) acknowledged Ringgold as its Legendary Artist for the COVID-19 PAGES: The Influence & Inspiration of Women exhibition it mounted in 2021 for all the reasons that her quotes relate in Black Is Beautiful.  The nonprofit was proud to include her American People Series #16: Woman Looking in a Mirror, 1966 in its online show, and I was hoping to see the original work at the Picasso Museum.

Unfortunately, it is not part of Black Is Beautiful.

That was the only thing that disappointed me about this exhibition.  From the moment I climbed the short flight of stairs to enter the first room of the show, I was mesmerized!

Entrance to Black Is Beautiful
© Entrée to Black Paris

You'll find Ringgold's self-portrait and a few of her early works in this room, as well as the introduction to the exhibition in French and English.

Reading opening information panel
© Entrée to Black Paris

Early Works #25: Self-portrait
© Faith Ringgold
1965 Oil on canvas
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

Three early works
© Entrée to Black Paris

I found the work entitled Uptight Negro, which can be inverted and still show a portrait of a man, to be especially interesting.

Early Works #22: Uptight Negro
© Faith Ringgold
1964 Oil on cardboard
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

The second room contains works from Ringgold's Black Light series, Black Power posters, and an oil painting from the American People series that presents a postage stamp composed of white, mixed-race, and black faces supported by a grid that says "White Power" and overwritten by the words "Black Power."

The People's Flag Show and The Judson 3
© Faith Ringgold
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

American People Series #19: U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power
© Faith Ringgold
1967 Oil on canvas
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

In reading about The People's Flag Show, an event held at the Judson Memorial Church in 1970 in NYC to protest legal restrictions on the use and display of the U.S. flag, I learned that Ringgold and two co-organizers/fellow artists (the Judson 3) were arrested and convicted of desecrating the flag because of the event. (The American Civil Liberties Union helped them get all charges dropped.) 

Ringgold had painted the flag in various guises prior to The People's Flag Show and continued to do so afterward.  Her quilt entitled The Flag is Bleeding #2: The American Collection #6 (1997) is part of the Black Is Beautiful exhibition.

The third room of the exhibition contains many works from the American People series and is dominated by American People Series #20: Die, the work that was inspired by Picasso's Guernica.  A display case on the right side of this room contains photos and documents pertaining to Guernica.

American People Series #20: Die
© Faith Ringgold
1967 Oil on canvas
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

My favorite work in this room is a portrait of Charlayne Hunter-Gault entitled Study Now.  She was one of the first two African Americans to enroll at the University of Georgia.

American People Series #10: Study Now
© Faith Ringgold
1964 Oil on canvas
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

To get to the next part of the exhibition, you need to re-enter Room 2, cross it, and exit it on the opposite side.  You'll find yourself in a room containing works inspired by Tibetan and Nepalese cloth paintings called "thangka" or "tanka."

Come back to the blog next week to learn about these works, numerous story quilts, and the powerful installation that make up the last half of this amazing exhibition!