Description:
Two portraits of women side-by-side covered in script. Border of blue stylized foliage around both. On the right right is a portrait of Sojourner Truth overwritten with the text of her speach "Ain't I a Woman?" and on the left is a portrait of Abigail Adams overwritten with the text of a letter to her husband imploring him to consider the rights of women drafting the Declaration of Independence.

Label Text:
Both activist and artist, Faith Ringgold has spent her distinguished career fighting for the rights of women and African Americans. In this print, one of six in the portfolio, Ringgold exposes the inconsistencies and omissions in America’s most famous founding document.

Finding inspiration in two 18th-century women, she foregrounds their rebellious words atop tonal silhouettes of each historical figure. On the right, a portrait of Sojourner Truth is overwritten with the text of her speech "Ain't I a Woman?" On the left, the image of Abigail Adams backdrops a letter to her husband imploring him to consider the rights of women in the formation of the new nation.

-Ellen Alvord, Weatherbie Cruator of Education and Academic Programs, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (Aug. 2017)

Tags:
social commentary; women; civil rights; African American

Subjects:
African American art

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2010.14

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

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