Jo Baker’s Birthday

Jo Baker’s Birthday

In Jo Baker’s Birthday, Faith Ringgold depicts Josephine Baker, a 20th century multidisciplinary artist and activist whose life and experiences Ringgold deeply identifies with. Baker poses semi-nude, gazing back at the viewer self-confidently, secure in her empowerment and status as an unequivocal icon of women’s sexual liberation. Her surroundings and Ringgold’s composition are appropriated from famous European paintings, notably Henri Matisse’s Harmony in Red (1908) and Odalisque Couchée aux Magnolias (Odalisque Lying with Magnolias) (1923). Ringgold’s subtle nods to art history simultaneously highlight the influence of African culture on European Modernism which often appropriated African forms while dehumanizing and othering African cultures and peoples. Originating from Ringgold’s quilt series The French Collection, this serigraph was printed by Berkeley Art Center and Alliance Graphics for the 10x10: Ten Women/Ten Prints portfolio commemorating the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which made it illegal to deny the right to vote based on sex.

Faith Ringgold

1995

Serigraph

David C. Driskell Center Permanent Collection,
Gift from Jean and Robert E. Steele Collection