For the first time, the Guggenheim Museum in New York is showcasing Tar Beach (1988), one of Faith Ringgold’s most beloved works, on view from May 9 through September 14. This large, handmade quilt tells the story of a young girl soaring above New York City, dreaming of freedom. The exhibition titled The Reach of Faith Ringgold places this piece at its heart, Tar Beach being the first in Ringgold’s Woman on a Bridge series of five monumental story quilts created in the late 1980s. Ringgold didn’t just paint and sew; she also wrote directly onto the fabric, transforming each quilt into a hybrid of visual art and storytelling.
Alongside Tar Beach, the show brings together works by iconic artists including Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Jacob Lawrence, as well as contemporary figures like Sanford Biggers, Tschabalala Self, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems. Rather than following a chronological path, the exhibition is organized thematically, allowing viewers to draw connections, trace echoes and contrasts, and see how certain ideas and visual languages reverberate across generations and styles.
Ringgold approached the quilt not merely as craft but as a powerful medium that merges painting, stitching, and text. Using materials traditionally associated with women’s domestic labor, she reimagined textile art as a platform for exploring race, identity, gender, and collective memory. “She left an indelible mark on the art world through both her practice and her activism”, said Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman, Chief Curator. “And she also sparked the imaginations of millions of children through her work as an author”.
Another highlight of the exhibition is Tragedy and Comedy (1952) by Jacob Lawrence, the first painting by a Black artist to enter the Guggenheim’s collection. It too delves into the emotional extremes of the human experience—grief and joy—and resonates deeply with Ringgold’s vision.
Faith Ringgold, who passed away in 2024, is presented here as a singular voice—resisting easy categorization. Her art is neither theatrical nor melodramatic; it is methodical and deeply intentional, holding together form and meaning, memory and material, words and silence.
