The American People Series 20: Die by Faith Ringgold
The American People Series 20: Die
Ringgold composed this mural as a reaction to the events leading up to and occurring in 1967,
specifically race riots occurring in several cities across America.
It's composition was inspired by Picasso's Guernica - a painting Ringgold frequented in her
native New York City -, and is currently housed in The Museum of Modern Art in New York City next
to one of his other works.
The background for the mural is a series of gray panels depicting the sidewalk as a battlefield where Americans fight to maintain or elevate their position in society.
Ringgold dressed her figures in modern, upscale clothing of the time and doused just about everyone in blood to demonstrate that no one was immune from the turmoil of the times and everyone played a part. The entagled limbs of both victims and perpetrators seek to reinforce this message.
Bibliography
Analysis of this painting is recent and novel, including commentary by the artist herself, who died in 2024. Because the commentary may not yet be accepted as common knowledge in regards to the painting, I wanted to list my sources so I don't take credit for others' efforts:
- Wikipedia Because of course.
- Artspace
- MoMA title card
- MoMA audio commentary. You can hear Ringgold on her own work at 6:40.
- WaPo
Hope among the despair
Despite the chaos in the painting, Ringgold offers a message of hope via two children not yet tainted
by bloodshed. Though traumatized by the events engulfing them, they gravitate toward each other ignorant
of their racial divide and provide each other with support, indicating that, though there it won't be easy,
there is a path forward in America despite the carnage depicted.