Hide Little Children by Faith RInggold

This painting was done by Faith in 1964, the year after we had begun school at New Lincoln in Harlem.  It is called Hide Little Children for many reasons I am sure.  Among them my mother's concern for our safety in the context of integration in the North.  When this painting emerged and she explained that it was about us and our white friends, it gave me a good feeling because I read its message as highly protective.  Our play and thus our relationships were hidden from view in an idyllic landscape, but as in William Blake's notion of childhood and innocence, it wasn't going to be possible to grow up, venture out and hold on to that innocence at the same time.  That was just about right.

The American People Series #15: Hide Little Children 1964 

(Oil on canvas) 36" x 32" Private Collection.

Elizabeth Sackler and Michele Wallace, Photo by Barbara Wallace

Photo by Barbara Wallace.  All rights reserved by Barbara Wallace 2009.

Michele talking to Elizabeth Sackler, founder of the Sackler Center for the Study of Feminist Art at recent party on Central Park South given by Judy Brodsky in anticipation of Faith's 50 Year Retrospective at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ in May 2009. Rutgers is also giving Faith her 21st Honorary Doctorate at their next graduation, where her childhood friend Sonny Rollins will also be honored. The Sackler Center for the Study of Feminist Art now provides a permanent home for Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party. This meticulous installation is well worth seeing by all who are interested in feminist art, even if you don't quite buy Chicago's historical narrative concerning the division of labor.  By the way, Sackler graduated from the New Lincoln School in the 1960s just a few years before me in 1969.