Faith Ringgold

American People Series #20: Die, 1967, by the artist by Faith Ringgold.

It is a work that captured the racial turbulence and national discord of the era.

Inspired by the Race riots of the 1960s and the writings of Amiri Baraka, it was included in The Tate Modern’s traveling exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.

It is now part of the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

I often visit the museum, just to see and sit with this painting and always notice something different everytime I look at it.

At one point it was hanging opposite Pablo Picasso’s

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

in direct conversation serving as a critique of the institution, it’s collecting habits, race and exclusion.

Her treatment of blood, white clothing, and a background reminiscent of concrete builds a sense of reality and gore that was occurring throughout American cities back then and even today.