A spokesperson describes the event as follows:
“...The exhibition will feature more than 100 works from a dozen of Ringgold’s books, including original paintings from “If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks” (1999), “Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House” (1993) and “Tar Beach” (1991), in which Cassie, a Black child in 1930s Harlem, imagines a future where she can go anywhere that she dreams of from her apartment’s rooftop. Also on view will be complete artwork from the fable “The Invisible Princess” (1999) and “We Came to America” (2016), which examines the history of immigration in America. Together, the artworks in the exhibition illuminate critical aspects of Ringgold’s practice and convey how Ringgold, a lifelong educator, presents children as creative, purposeful art makers.
The exhibition’s title, “Seeing Children,” signals three themes that weave throughout Ringgold’s books and will be explored in the exhibition: an adult’s capacity to see children, children’s ability to see themselves and their world, and the possibility of children imagining a world beyond what adults can see. Across three sections — American Histories, Stories We Tell and American People — the exhibition will consider the role of children, particularly Black children, in American society and how children, like those in Ringgold’s books, can cultivate more equitable, hopeful possibilities for their future..."
