Description:
No matter how society conspires to usher certain groups toward its dimly lit margins, some folks always work their way back to the center waving and shouting. Faith Ringgold redefines the solemn artistic canon represented by Van Gogh, Matisse, and Monet with her intricate, glorious story quilts. Their fabric and paint layers combine magical realism with politics, feminism, satire, memoir and the weight of African American history. Dancing at the Louvre was designed to accompany a traveling show of Ringgold's work. It pairs gorgeously rendered color plates with pithy text on her art, life, and politics. Her "French Collection" quilts feature protagonist Willia X enlivening--no, reviving--classical European art and tableaus. In "The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles," Van Gogh carries his awkward, brilliant sunflowers to a table where Willia X mingles with the likes of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Sojourner Truth, "a fortress of African American women's courage, with enough energy to transform a nation piece by piece," writes Ringgold along the quilt border. Other pieces, such as the folk art "Who's Afraid of Aunt Jemima" and the unalloyed anger of "The Flag is Bleeding" conjure the pain of racism. --Francesca Coltrera
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