The Worcester Art Museum‘s current exhibit of Faith Ringgold‘s work, Freedom to Say What I Please is small but powerful. Included are her posters, paintings, prints, and a quilt-illustration from her beloved book, Tar Beach. Ringgold is 93 and still working, and the strength of her vision through the decades is arresting. These life-size soft sculptures are “Bessie and Faith” from her Family of Women Series (1974), reminders to the art world of the time to include more women artists, instead of merely representations of women. These two figures represent the artist’s Aunt Bessie alongside Ringgold’s self-portrait, and are inspired by carved wood masks from the Dan people of Liberia.
Lured by the prospect of finding other women artists at WAM, I went on a treasure hunt. Judith Leyster, Gabriele Münter, Maria Marc, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and the mighty Käthe Kollwicz are represented in the permanent galleries. Kollwicz’s sculpture Mother with Child Over Her Shoulder (below) was cast in bronze almost 50 years after the artist’s death. Her sculptures are thankfully beginning to be better known.
Freedom to Say What I Please is up until March 17, and has an accompanying reading room stocked with Ringgold’s childrens’ books.
A working sculptor 