“The stigma attached to having been in jail for a woman is a very threatening one because of the idea of how dare her not be a good wife and mother. She goes to jail because she is not able to play her traditional role as a woman.”~Faith Ringgold
Oil on Canvas
96 x 96 in.
Faith Ringgold’s painting For The Women’s House was created for the Women’s House of Detention in New York City after the artist had been awarded a Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) grant by the New York State Council on the Arts to produce a work for a public institution in New York City. Engaging and empowering audiences, especially those experiencing systemic discrimination has always been especially important to Ringgold and she sought to create an affirmative vision for the women and made a painting that represented only women in different non-traditional roles and occupations.
This last large-scale painting produced by Ringgold measures eight by eight feet in total, and is composed of two parts, each measuring eight by four feet. Even the two canvases were so large that they did not fit into the elevator in Faith Ringgold’s building, and had to be carried down 14 flights of stairs by her daughters, Barbara and Michele, upon completion. It was transported to the prison by uniformed prison guards in a prison truck, drawing a crowd in Ringgold’s Harlem neighborhood. The mural was installed in the corridor of the new Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in January of 1972. The opening ceremony, attended by female and male inmates as well as friends and artist colleagues of Ringgold, was a rare festive event featuring the prison band at the facility. Ringgold’s engagement led to the founding of “Art Without Walls – Free Space,” a program born out of the civil rights movement and aimed at enriching the lives of inmates. With other volunteers, Ringgold went to the prison once a month to provide courses, among them mask making, theater, career counseling, and drug addiction prevention.
When the building was converted into a men’s prison, the oil painting was painted over with white house paint and then stored in the basement. Ringgold was informed of this by a guard, and the painting was restored which took a conservator an entire year. The painting was then brought to the women’s prison Rose M. Singer Center, where it was displayed in the gym above the basketball court protected by Plexiglas.