“In order to make the people visible, I had to create clearly defined, abstract shapes.”~Faith Ringgold
Oil on canvas
30 1/16 x 24 1/8 in.
In Ringgold’s second painting in her Black Light series, she further develops her experimentation with dark color and its ability to create images that emanate light. Ringgold uses a selected range of colors (gray, brown, blue, and red) to create an abstracted physiognomy that relates to the abstracted features seen in African masks. Ringgold appreciated the elegance of the stylized three-dimensional facial features in African sculptural work, and translated it into a flattened, two-dimensional pattern.
Ringgold’s Man shows the frontal portrait of an abstracted head – the figure has no hair or any other discerning attributes like jewelry or remarkable features. His perfectly symmetrical face, wide open eyes and geometrically shaped nose and curved lips make this face look like that of an androgynous mannequin rather than a specific person.