Title: Faith Ringgold : Die /
Authors: Monahan, Anne; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Year: 2018
Subjects: Ringgold, Faith.; Ringgold, Faith Criticism and interpretation.; Ringgold, Faith; Ringgold, Faith, Critique et interprétation.; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.); Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.); Racism in art; Art New York (State) New York.; Art; Racism in art; Racisme dans l'art.; New York (State) New York
Abstract: Ten adults?men and women, black and white?fight, flee or die over the twelve-foot span of American People Series #20: Die, as an interracial pair of children cowers unnoticed in their midst. While Faith Ringgold (born 1930) was devising this bloody spectacle in a Manhattan studio in the summer of 1967, civil unrest was convulsing black neighborhoods across the US. Art historian Anne Monahan's essay explores the mural's carefully orchestrated chaos and its multiform inspirations, from contemporary anxiety about black revolution, through the writings of James Baldwin and LeRoi Jones, to iconic canvases by Picasso and Pollock then on view at MoMA.