A quilt commissioned by Oprah Winfrey that hung in the home of author Maya Angelou is now part of the collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, according to a news release from the museum.
Maya's Quilt of Life, 1989, by Faith Ringgold, was commissioned for Angelou's 61st birthday. The piece will debut in the 1940s to Now Gallery in the coming months, according to the news release.
Angelou spent much of her childhood in Stamps. She died at 86 in 2014.
“Maya’s Quilt of Life expands the presence of important black artists in our collection, building on other recent acquisitions of works by artists ranging from Edward Mitchell Bannister to Alma Thomas,” Curator Chad Alligood said in the news release. "At the same time, the work bolsters a key strength of Crystal Bridges' collection: important women artists of the postwar period. The parallels between Ringgold and Angelou are manifest in this work: both women deploy the power of written word to illuminate the experience of being a black woman in America.”
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.