Coco’s Backhand, her money shot. Bessie Smith’s voice. When you heard that voice, as they said of Armstrong’s trumpet, “you put your money down.”
Coco flying to her first grand slam title at the US Open in NYC where people on subways see Ringgold’s heroes and heroines– performers, painters, athletes, activists, writers—all “Flying Home” to Harlem. Flying a metaphor for freedom, release, transcendence, heaven. Accomplishment, too. Only the great ones fly like Duke Ellington or Bessie Smith, her voice soaring forever while plummeting earth’s pains, the depths of the blues, in over a 100 recordings we still hear today. Perhaps Coco one day will join the pantheon.
Faith Ringgold’s mosaics in “Flying Home” echo the weightless, floating bodies in the gold mosaics of Christianity. Not the body and its weight, but the soul. Not this world and its weight, but heaven. Heaven or home or Harlem. Bessie performing in countless venues from Detroit to Memphis and throughout the south before standing room crowds. Coco performing in the world’s stadiums. When the best come to town—athlete, artist, musician—put your money down. Make sure you get a ticket. And if you ride the subway, keep your eyes open. Art is everywhere. You never know what you might see.
*The juxtaposition of Coco Gauff’s Backhand and Bessie Smith from Faith Ringgold’s mosaic comes from the constantly searching imagination of LJ Rader from Artbutmakeitsports. His creative juxtapositions of famous art images with contemporary sports moments has become a social media sensation. He recently appeared on the PBS News Hour to explain what he does and why. You can learn more from artbutmakeitsports and subscribe to his newsletter on his website. You can also follow his account on X (Twitter).
Check out my latest book, Tennis Players as Works of Art, now available on Amazon. Called “madly ambitious” and named one its 5 featured books of 2024 in the category of Art/Imagination/Creativity by Publisher’s Weekly Booklife, Tennis Players as Works of Art has also been named “One of the Best Books we Read in 2024” (Independent Book Review) and “Book of the Year” (Inside Tennis Magazine.)
About Faith Ringgold (from her website):
Faith Ringgold, born 1930 in Harlem, New York, is a painter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, writer, teacher and lecturer. She received her B.S. and M.A. degrees in visual art from the City College of New York in 1955 and 1959. Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of California in San Diego, Ringgold has received 23 Honorary Doctorates.
During the early 1960’s Ringgold traveled in Europe. She created her first political paintings, The American People Series from 1963 to 1967 and had her first and second one-person exhibitions at the Spectrum Gallery in New York. In the early 1970’s Ringgold began making tankas (inspired by a Tibetan art form of paintings framed in richly brocaded fabrics), soft sculptures and masks. She later utilized this medium in her masked performances of the 1970’s and 80’s. Although Faith Ringgold’s art was initially inspired by African art in the 1960’s, it was not until the late 1970’s that she traveled to Nigeria and Ghana to see the rich tradition of masks that have continued to be her greatest influence.
She made her first quilt, Echoes of Harlem, in 1980, in collaboration with her mother, Madame Willi Posey. The quilts were an extension of her tankas from the 1970’s. However, these paintings were not only bordered with fabric but quilted, creating for her a unique way of painting using the quilt medium.
Ringgold’s first story quilt Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? was written in 1983 as a way of publishing her unedited words. The addition of text to her quilts has developed into a unique medium and style all her own.
Crown Publishers published Faith Ringgold’s first book, the award winning Tar Beach in 1991. It has won over 20 awards including the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King award for the best-illustrated children’s book of 1991. An animated version with Natalie Cole as the voice over was created by HBO in 2010. The book is based on the story quilt of the same title from The Woman on a Bridge Series, 1988. The original painted story quilt, Tar Beach, is in the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Her second children’s book Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky was published in 1992 by Crown. In 1993 Hyperion Books published Dinner at Aunt Connie’s, Ringgold’s third book based on The Dinner Quilt, 1986. Faith Ringgold’s autobiography and first book for an adult audience We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold (Bullfinch 1995; released in paperback by Duke University Press in 2005) as well as the children’s book My Dream of Martin Luther King were published. To date she has illustrated 17 children’s books. Faith’s most recent books are Harlem Renaissance Party (Harper Collins 2015) and We Came to America (Alfred A Knopf 2016).
Faith Ringgold has been represented worldwide exclusively by ACA Galleries since 1995.
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