Faith Ringgold’s Quilts and Picturebooks: Comparisons and Contributions

Faith Ringgold, best known for Tar Beach, her 1991 Caldecott award winning picturebook, has been addressing social issues in her art since the early 1960s. The purchase of her Tar Beach story quilt by the Guggenheim Museum demonstrates the acceptance of her fabric art by the fine arts community. An examination of the connections between Ringgold’s fabric art and picturebooks, including connections between themes, characters, narrative style and her use of visual elements, points to the conclusion that her quilts and picturebooks are related in their use of literary and fine art elements. Using Ringgold’s work as an example, this article supports the view that picturebooks should be considered a fine art form.