And Women?

mh_2010_14_v1-cdm.jpg

Ringgold, Faith, And Women?
Photo Credit: 

    Laura Shea 

Not On View
Ringgold, Faith
American (1930- )
Place made: 
North America; United States; Massachusetts; South Hadley
And Women?, 2009 May 5
Serigraph on Rives BFK White
Mat: 20 in x 24 in; 50.8 cm x 61 cm; Sheet: 15 in x 22 1/2 in; 38.1 cm x 57.1 cm; Image: 12 1/16 in x 16 7/16 in; 30.6 cm x 41.8 cm
Gift of the Mount Holyoke College Printmaking Workshop
MH 2010.14

Both activist and artist, Faith Ringgold has spent her distinguished career fighting for the rights of women and African Americans. In this print, one of six in the portfolio, Ringgold exposes the inconsistencies and omissions in America’s most famous founding document.

Finding inspiration in two 18th-century women, she foregrounds their rebellious words atop tonal silhouettes of each historical figure. On the right, a portrait of Sojourner Truth is overwritten with the text of her speech Ain't I a Woman? On the left, the image of Abigail Adams backdrops a letter to her husband imploring him to consider the rights of women in the formation of the new nation.

-Ellen Alvord, Weatherbie Cruator of Education and Academic Programs, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (Aug. 2017)