Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

Preview image of work. lithograph on paper, The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles 23725

2011.33.2

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The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

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Artist

Faith Ringgold (Faith Willi Jones) (New York, N.Y., 10/8/1930 – )

Title

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

Creation Date

1996

Century

late 20th century

Dimensions

22 in. x 29 3/8 in. (55.88 cm x 74.61 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

lithograph on paper

Credit Line

Gift of Julie L. McGee, Class of 1982

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2011.33.2

Made after the quilt painting of the same name, The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles depicts several prominent African American women constructing a sunflower-patterned quilt. Standing among a field of sunflowers, the women who hold the quilt are relatively well known in American history—Madam CJ Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Ella Baker. Willia Marie Simone, the fictional ninth figure in the lower left, is included as a young woman who journeys throughout Europe to become an artist. In this lithograph, artist Faith Ringgold celebrates the contributions of Black women to abolition, civil rights, and women’s rights while centering the collective, traditionally female art of quilting. Black women since the nineteenth century have participated in the tradition of quilting, resourcefully creating elaborate and abstract quilt compositions.