Dear Maryly,

"Called out and rectified," indeed. How could this issue not have come up in 2019, unless there is some overwhelming obstacle that we cannot know? Perhaps you should send your letter to all five museums. What a great project transcribing all that text would have been for a trainee or two. I don't understand the lack of a catalogue. I can guarantee it would have sold vigorously. Perhaps you should write D.A.P. and see if they can do it posthumously, while the works are still together and available.

With warm regards (and guard those knees, oh please),

Larry

[log in to unmask]"> I went to the Faith Ringgold exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco today.

It is an excellent show, but a little frustrating. Most of her quilts carry a large amount

of writing, her hand-written texts. The texts are written on the white fabric. Here are 2 representative samples:  

It is very difficult to read the texts, as they are either 10’ above the floor or

close to the floor, 1’ or 2’ above the floor. And the museum labels did not reveal the full

texts either. 

I couldn’t wait to go to the museum store, hoping to find a book, a smallish

book or the catalog to read the full texts for each quilt reproduction.

Nope! Nada! 

I couldn’t help think that the lack of accessible text in print form created by the various

museum curators was disrespectful. Her works are very political and historical.

Her subject matter is clearly racism. Some of the texts that I did manage

to read (oh, my creaking knees) were didactic, opinionated. Some were

fantasies and stories. Some explicated the painting itself.

The exhibit, as far as I can tell, was initiated by the Serpentine in London in 2019. 

In 2020 the exhibition was at the Bildmuseet, Sweden. In 2021 The Glenstone Museum.

In 2022 the New Museum in the first half of the year, and the De Young Museum for the

2nd half of 2022.

Some of the archival materials included her typed polemics from the 60s and 70s on how few women compared to men were exhibited, and how few of the women were black. Her gender and race were clearly important to her, and were amplfied in a variety of ways in her texts in the quilts.

I think this deserves to be called out for what it is, and rectified.

Have reviews mentioned this? 

Am I just a cranky old lady? (Retired from ARLIS/NA and my job in 2006)

I don’t think so!

Maryly Snow

ARLIS/NA Retiree’s SIG

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-- 
Laurence McGilvery
Member: Antiquarian Booksellers
Association of America
P. O. Box 852
La Jolla, California 92038
(858) 454-4443
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www.mcgilvery.com

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Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
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