?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
FAITH RINGGOLD (1934 - ) Bessie Blues.
Color oil pastels on thin buff wove paper, 1997. 415x345 mm; 16 1/4x13 1/2 inches. Signed and date in ink, lower right.
Provenance: ACA Galleries, New York, with the label on the frame back.
This drawing is a study for the same-titled painting of the singer Bessie Smith, from the American Collection series. With her focus on personal narratives and black cultural awareness, Faith Ringgold is known for her painted, hanging quilts. She was born and raised in Harlem, New York,and earned a Master's Degree at City College of New York where she was influenced by Robert Gwathmey and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. She was one of the first female artists to protest discrimination against women in art exhibits and museums, and succeeded in opening the New York art world to more women and minorities. Her works are in the permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, all in New York. Her first book, Tar Beach was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, among numerous other honors.
