Over the course of her sixty-year career, Faith Ringgold’s activism has moved strategically between reform and revolution. She helped form one of the first collectives for women of color artists in Brooklyn, led protests to push for the inclusion of artists of color at the Whitney and the Brooklyn Museum, advocated for free speech as part of the Judson 3, and worked with women who were incarcerated on Rikers to make a mural for the prison. These powerful acts of art and activism are only a few of the many times Ringgold appears throughout We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85, on view through September 17, 2017.
Ringgold completed this self-portrait at the beginning of her career, concurrent with the rise of the Black Power and other radical political movements of the 1960s. Alluding to the hard-edged, mechanical line favored by Pop artists and the psychologically acute portraiture of Pablo Picasso, the artist portrays herself with a determined gaze and folded arms, in a gesture simultaneously gentle and guarded. In reflecting on this painting and the political and artistic awakening she experienced during this time, Ringgold has said, “I was trying to find my voice, talking to myself through my art.”
Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930). Early Works #25: Self-Portrait, 1965. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Elizabeth A. Sackler, 2013.96. © 1965 Faith Ringgold.
