Faith Ringgold

A View from the Studio

When you look out of your studio window, what do you see? I see my determination to be free in America. Faith Ringgold: A View From the Studio is a remarkable book about a world-famous Black American artist. It is an artist's artist's book--by one artist and about another--about the making of art, about politics and judgment, about passion and struggle. It is, above all, about a great artist's collaboration with others in the creation of a unique body of work, which expresses a deeply committed vision of American history and the struggle for freedom. Whether in the deeply personal works such as Coming to Jones Road or the more public statements in The Death of Apartheid and No More War, Faith Ringgold expresses a bold vision that celebrates a debt to the powerful and enduring legacy of African- American literature, music, poetry, and painting. A courageous, experimental artist with a deep sense of public responsibility, she is the embodiment of one of the richest traditions in American art. Curlee Holton, a long-time collaborator of Faith's and her principal printmaker, has written about his fellow artist's creative methods, studio work, and many sources of inspiration. Curlee reveals an artist endowed with an unquenchable energy that communicates itself to all who come into contact with her, be they children, students, artists, or her many admirers and collectors, both private and institutional. As a printmaker and teacher, Curlee pays particular attention to the nature of Faith's working relationship with himself and other printers such as Bob Blackburn and John Phillips, as well as to the remarkable collaboration between Faith and her mother, Willie Posie.