Tar Beach 2
Faith Ringgold
“This image comes from Ringgold’s childhood memories of summertime dinners atop the roof of the Harlem, New York, apartment building where she and her family lived. In the lower left-hand corner, the artist pictures herself as an eight-year-old child lying with her younger brother on a mattress, contemplating the starlit nighttime sky. She is telling him a story of a young girl named Cassie Louise Lightfoot, Ringgold’s alter ego, who has been given the power of flight. Even more impressive is Cassie's ability to possess whatever she can fly over, which in this case is the George Washington Bridge. Ringgold produced this limited-edition silk-screened quilt at the nearby Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia.”
Source: Sajet, Kim. The Chemistry of Color: African American Artists in Philadelphia, 1970-1990. Philadelphia, PA: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2005, pg. 51
Artist
Date of Birth
(b. 1930)
Date
1990
Medium
Silkscreen on silk and pieced printed cotton, ed. 13/24
Dimensions
65 3/4 x 65 1/4 in. (167.005 x 165.735 cm.)
Accession #
1999.17.2
Credit Line
The Harold A. and Ann R. Sorgenti Collection of Contemporary African-American Art
Copyright
© Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York
Category
Subject
