I was treated to a trip to New York to celebrate my birthday in January, which would include visiting the museums that I had virtually been to during research on this course. My intention was visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Guggenheim (which has been closed during my previous three visits to the city and the Metropolitan Museum (The Met), which I visiting during a business trip in 2019.  Alas, all three were disappointing experiences for someone looking to see photographic art.  MoMA’s photography room was closed for a new exhibition to be added, The Guggenheim had just completed their Mapplethorpe exhibition and had nothing else in the genre to look at.  The Met was also preparing their space for a new exhibition, leaving a few works by Brassaï and Abbott on display.  I concluded that January is not a good time for this kind of visit.  However, I did encounter a work of art in MoMA that resonated with me.

‘Die’ by Faith Ringgold, 1967

The piece is a huge canvas measuring some 12 feet across and it depicts a scene of huge violence between a number of people.  The painting style is bold and brightly coloured with an al most cartoon feel to it, but the first thing we notice is that the fight is between black and white people and the horror of the injuries they are inflicting on each other.  What I liked about this particular piece, though was that the audio tour was narrated by the artist herself.  Now 89 years old, Ringgold described how she came to paint this work.  She grew up in Harlem during a period where racial tension spilled into many New York neighbourhoods and I think what initially drew me to this work was the synergy with how things are today.  However, at the time of painting Ringgold felt that nobody was brave enough to portray the brutality of the tension between black and white people as well as how it permeated through every class of society.

In the painting, we see a chaotic scene with men and women of different races engaged in a bloody fight.  Weapons are used as well as physical contact and there appears to be injury of equal measure on both sides.  Ringgold described how she wanted the people to be middle class, so dressed them in elegant business clothing.  The women in particular echo the fashion of the period with elegant short dresses synonymous with the 1960s.  On the left of the painting is a confusing scene with a woman seemingly handing her child to an unseen person out of the frame.  When I first looked at this, I thought she was showing her child to the black figure in front of her, as if to say “look what you have done!”.  Ringgold’s explanation, though is one of protection of her child and the act of handing the little girl to someone for safety.  Children are used again in the painting, this time with a white boy and black girl handing on to each other with looks of sheer terror on their faces.  Ringgold explains that very young children of conflicts such as these don’t identify with sides and in this case, her depiction is of them protecting each other from the nightmare around them.   It’s true that as we get older we are introduced to the ideas of prejudice and hatred as we learn what we like and don’t like.  The children here then are shown to be completely innocent in their outlook.  When I first noticed them, I was immediately saddened by their innocence being their only form of defence as they huddle together.   The final element that Ringgold pointed out was the use of the sidewalk as the backdrop.  The simple slab pattern symbolises the way that this scene could be any city or town, not just New York and for me was a powerful element that really set off the picture.

This painting, and Ringgold commentary was the highlight of the visit which had threatened to be a disappointment.  I was drawn into the scene not because of its graphic nature, but more because of the elements that created a multi-layered narrative around race, fear, protection and innocence.

Reference

[1] Monahan, A, 2018, “Faith Ringgold – Die”, Gallery Guide, Museum of Modern Art, New York