“Faith Ringgold: American People” Finally Pays the Artist Her Dues

As it happens, this exhibition arrives amid a wave of renewed interest in Ringgold after years of fitful recognition. For instance, when the Museum of Modern Art reopened in 2019 following the completion of a major expansion, it installed Ringgold’s canvas Die (1967) alongside Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) as a “response”—a gesture which raised Ringgold’s profile even as it seemed like an attempt to divert attention from Picasso’s reputation as a sexual predator. More recently, she appeared in the news when a long-neglected mural commissioned by the city in 1972 for the women’s facility at Rikers Island was relocated to the Brooklyn Museum at the artist’s request.