Home Exhibition Virtual TourIntroduction to exhibition

Introduction to exhibition

Transcription of podcast:

Welcome to Virtual Stories at the David C. Driskell Center. With this hybrid program, you can experience the exhibition, Ringgold/ Saar: Meeting on the Matrix, in a unique way.

This audio tour will begin with the genesis of the project, before turning to focus on the subject matter of the exhibition: printmaking. And finally, we will shift our attention to the two artists on display in an effort to contextualize their respective artworks. This audio narrative aims to connect images and content for all visitors so that they may experience this exhibition in a fuller way. Please be aware that this Virtual Story is not a full audio caption of the exhibition.

Let’s begin.

Ringgold/ Saar: Meeting on the Matrix, started as an assignment for a class of graduate students in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University. The initial course concept focused on the permanent collection of the David C Driskell Center, with a specific emphasis on the print
medium. David Driskell, founder of the center and former Distinguished University Professor of Art, was a printmaker as well as a historian of African American and African diaspora art. The current director of the Driskell Center, Professor Curlee Raven Holton is himself a master printmaker –that
is, Holton is a technical expert who works with artists to execute their vision in a medium that may be initially unfamiliar to them. He has worked closely with both Ringgold and Saar in the course of their artistic careers.

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Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar are two U.S.-born Black women artists, who work in a variety of media including: sculpture, painting, and textiles. Both also include printmaking as a central element of their respective practices, despite the fact that the medium is not often given due attention in the academic world.

Visibility in the institutional setting is, in fact, an ongoing battle. And a specific lack of visibility for Black women artists is a concern for both Ringgold and Saar. Visibility is a concept that is fundamentally inherent to this exhibition. And this is a frame the Virtual Story will use to reflect on the intersections between printmaking and Black Aesthetic(s) as you move through the exhibition.

Let’s now take a closer look at our presented artists.

Painter, sculptor, teacher, activist and author of many children’s books, Faith Ringgold was born in 1930 in Harlem, New York. She rose to national attention in the 1960s via her figurative oil paintings, many of which have since entered several large public collections including MOMA, The Perez Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Ringgold was also one of a very small group of Black women, who helped galvanize the Black and Feminist Art Movements in New York in the 1970s.

Starting in the early 1980s Ringgold began to experiment with adding text and images to quilts as a way of creating visual imagery for her future written publication. These story quilts have since developed into a unique medium and style all her own. Ringgold’s story quilts blend tradition and innovation.

In Parallel

Betye Saar, born in Los Angeles in 1926, is a multidisciplinary artist as well. She studied design and printmaking at the University of California in Los Angeles, before turning her practice to assemblage and sculptures. After working as a social worker for a few years, Saar began her artistic career at the age of 35. Taking part in the Black Arts movement, she engaged themes centered on African American identity, spirituality, family, socio-economics and the connections
between different cultures. Her appropriation of collectibles, heirlooms, found and utilitarian objects, cemented her status as a pioneer of the Assemblage movement, which became In the early 1970s increasingly radical.

Birds, dolls , coins, antiques, ornaments, clocks, jewels, boxes (just to name a few) all find a second life in the artist’s works. She creates new meaning and new shapes, merging, deconstructing or reassembling these found objects.

Although both Ringgold and Saar have been praised by critics for their works on canvas, textile, and assemblage, their printed works have received little attention to date.

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Visitors, Welcome. As you enter the physical space of the Driskell Center gallery, you first encounter a large, yellow title wall and exhibition statement at the front, directly opposite the entrance doors. Just behind the yellow wall you start your journey. Notice that the exhibition is organized as a site of connectivity, where the works of Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar each occupy one side of the gallery. Their works are organized thematically along each wall, as well as linked
conceptually with works on the opposite wall. As you move through the exhibition, working your way toward the back of the gallery, the works eventually meet on the matrix, connecting at the end of their pathways.

If you are turned to face the back of the gallery, you will find just to your left a side gallery, tucked behind a wall. This smaller space is arranged to provide access to videos, photos and general information about each artist. You will note that the curators have paid particular attention to Ringgold’s and Saar’s specific ties to the UMD community. In this space you can view video interviews that introduce the general artistic practices of both Ringgold and Saar, alongside a virtual
timeline of their lives.

In this smaller side gallery, we ask you to consider what exactly is “printmaking» and, what is the “matrix” ? Here are the answers:

Printmaking is an artistic process created by transferring images from a matrix onto another surface. Based on how the matrix imprints imagery, prints are categorized into three main types: Intaglio, Relief and Planographic.

The matrix is any printmaking surface which transfers ink onto another material, such as paper or fabric. It can be a template which allows imagery to be produced multiple times, or it can be a vehicle for a one-off design. In RINGGOLD | SAAR: Meeting on the Matrix, the gallery space functions as a matrix — a site of contact between visitors and the artists, their prints, imagery, and ideas.

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Let's refocus your attention onto our main gallery. Bright colored walls (Yellow, Red, and Blue) define specific themed groupings of artworks. The works of Faith Ringgold line the right side of the Driskell Center gallery, beginning with the
Black Panthers poster series. Be sure to listen to the audio description of one of these posters to put this series in perspective. Ringgold’s Declaration of Freedom and Independence is the next you will encounter on this right-side wall- exhibited as a complete series for the very first time in this exhibition. This portfolio of 17 prints consists of a cover print, 2 forewords : one from the artist and the other from Curleee Raven Holton, her master printer, a colophon and 6 illustrations with affiliated texts.

The piece narrates important episodes of the building of the United States as a nation: from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the illustrations depict in color the truth about the establishment of the nation. Another copy of the print series, intact in its box, is displayed in a case at the center of the space.

Further down, Ringgold’s “WE LOVE YOU” prints showcase iconic figures of the African American creative community. Additional works on historical figures such as MLK or Henry O Tanner complete this section.

Finally, her “music themed” prints are last, installed against a dark blue background, ending the artist section. A favored source of Ringgold’s is the music scene of Harlem --the city where she has lived and worked for nearly a century. The section concludes with the display of such a large quilt Ringgold created in 2004, also known as the Jazz Quilt.

You might ask : « Why put artworks in a print show that arent print? » Well, this exhibition hopes to open conversations about practices, media and techniques. While quilt and textile works do not often fall under the rubric of printmaking, Ringgold’s Jazz quilt directly references some of the work
in the gallery. Printmaking is a fuel for inspiration for other media, and reciprocally, provides new surfaces to explore creativity.

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Let’s now transition to the other side of the gallery to look at the works of Betye Saar. Non “printed” objects, in this case two small sculptures by Saar, are on view, directing you to think about the interpretation of the surface and the matrix of applying, of pressing, of collaging, of etching onto flatness.

Saar’s work is diverse, from bold colored prints (such as the artworks displays titled LA Sky with Spinning Heart promoting blues) to more intimate the artist's family and friends. Saar’s print practice has developed from her first encounters with the medium while an art student to her more recent encounters. The works included here span 5 decades of her printmaking
career. Here again, not every work is “print based” but they all introduce the connections between Saar’s aesthetics across a range of media. For instance, on a pedestal, you will find a very small sculpture (less than 8 in high) titled Everyday Tumbling. This work intentionally looks like a matrix itself: ready to be applied and pressed against a paper so that its content may be reproduced.

Moving on.

Similar to Ringgold’s Declaration of Freedom and Independence, a highlight of this show is Saar’s Bookmarks in the Pages of Life Series. This exhibition presents both a series of pages of the book, as well as the original binded version, visible under a plexicase at the center of the gallery. Please
listen to the audio on The Bookmarks in the Pages of Life for additional information.

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This is the first time Ringgold and Saar are shown in a duo exhibition. Although these two artists are rarely put into conversion with one another, both Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar’s artistic practices are complex nets, and PRINTmaking is the framework for understanding the larger imprint of their work on the historical record as well as on the contemporary art scene.

Find additional information: keep on listening to the next tracks on this playlist. Enjoy the show !

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