Plate from Letter from Birmingham City Jail
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
screenprint from an illustrated book with eight screenprints
Dimensions
overall (closed): 39.8 × 33.2 × 4.9 cm (15 11/16 × 13 1/16 × 1 15/16 in.)
Classification
Volume
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Fine in honor of Michele Wallace
Accession Number
2021.80.27.5
Art Historical Context
Faith Ringgold's *Plate from Letter from Birmingham Jail* (2007) is a screenprint from an illustrated featuring eight such prints, honoring Martin Luther King Jr.' seminal 1963 epistle. Written from a Birmingham jail cell, King's letter passionately defends nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice, becoming a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement. Ringgold a trailblazing African American artist known for her narrative quilts and activism, reinterprets this historic text through vivid imagery, collaborating with master printer Curlee Raven Hol to produce these dynamic works. S...