Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold's French Collection and Other Story Quilts

Author: Dan Cameron (Editor), Faith Ringgold (Artist)
Publisher: New Museum/University of California Press
Year: 1998
Pages: 168
ISBN: 978-0520214309

Faith Ringgold’s quilts are empowering. With painted images, handwritten texts, and quilting techniques, she stitches the classic art of story-telling together with ideas from modernist and postmodernist art, feminist theory, and African American history.

Designed to accompany a major traveling exhibition of Ringgold’s work, Dancing at the Louvre offers a clear overview of her contribution to contemporary art and showcases in dazzling color, for the first time, all of the exquisite story quilts in her celebrated series The French Collection. It also features many earlier works, such as the highly popular Tar Beach, and selections from The American Collection, begun in 1996. Essays examine her stylistic development from the 1960s through the 1990s and explore the social and political aspects of her story quilts. Recollections by feminist writer Michele Wallace, the artist’s daughter, and by art historian Moira Roth add autobiographical insights.

Faith Ringgold has a broad audience of admirers, from the art critics who have praised her gallery shows to the youngsters and parents who love her children’s books.All will welcome Dancing at the Louvre.

Finally, there is a book that highlights Ringgold’s artistic achievements and provides a full discussion of her importance within art history.