Black Women at the Louvre - Faith Ringgold, Beyoncé and Barbara Chase-Riboud: Reflections on Alice Diop’s Fragments for Venus

Black Women at the Louvre—Faith Ringgold, Beyoncé and Barbara Chase-Riboud:

Reflections on Alice Diop’s Fragments for Venus

by Beti Ellerson

African American women artists have long contemplated the significance of subverting the gaze, of representation in the hallowed halls of the Louvre, as a means to claim their existence as black women, in the most revered place of world art. Three notable examples: Faith Ringgold, Beyoncé and Barbara Chase-Riboud, whose works have featured prominently—imagined or in reality—in the spaces of the museum. In many ways, the 21-minute film, Fragments for Venus by Black French filmmaker Alice Diop is in contrast to the above, her personage traverses these galleries alone, as she carefully scrutinizes the iconic tableaux representing predominantly white women. She pauses, as she reflects on the many representations of black people, in the role of servant and domestic. And there is Madeleine, in the celebrated 1800 painting, “Portrait d'une femme noire” by Marie-Guillemine Benoist.

 

Paradoxically, in the second part of the film, Alice Diop traverses the Atlantic to Brooklyn, New York, in search of the absent black Venuses catalogued in the poem Voyage of the Sable Venus, by the African American author Robin Coste Lewis—which inspired Alice Diop’s work—its litany of representations of Black women accompany the film in voice-off.

Faith Ringgold’s story-quilt, "Dancing at the Louvre", (1991) relates the adventures of its fictional character, the young African American Willa Marie Simone, who moves to Paris in the early 20th century. Contrary to the reverential comportment of Alice Diop’s museum-goer, Faith Ringgold’s personages, which include Willa Marie Simone and her daughters, are playful, joyful, mischievous, irreverent even, as they transgress the polite decorum of museum visitors. Similarly, Beyoncé’s "Apeshit", performed with Jay-Z, blurs the boundaries of exhibition and spectacle, disrupting the rules of "high art". Side by side with the Mona Lisa, she imposes herself. On the Daru Staircase connecting the Denon wing, she sprawls on the steps during her provocative dance, demanding the attention of the viewers, as the legendary "Victoire de Samothrace" looms in the background. 

 

Rather than searching elsewhere for traces of black venuses, Beyoncé appropriates the spaces of the same museum which hails the iconic Venus de Milo. During the "Apeshit" refrain, she celebrates her presence at the Louvre: "I can’t believe we made it, this is what we’re thankful for."

 

One may also ponder Alice Diop’s fascination with the colorful black women of Bed-Sty in Brooklyn. As if a passerby, she stares, peeks, in awe. And yet, there are just as many colorfully dressed and vibrant women of Chateau d’eau and La Goutte d’or, for example, in the multicultural neighborhoods of Paris. Watching the film, the viewer is especially struct by an ever present woman—voluminous and imposing. Certainly Alice Diop is familiar with the work of the black French performance artist Rébécca Châtillon of Guadeloupean ancestry who places her massive body at the intersection of the myriad discourses around feminism, anti-racist struggles, the promotion and defense of queer culture, decoloniality; and like Alice Diop, she deconstructs the black female body. As Rébécca Châtillon and Alice Diop demonstrate, art and creative intellectual work around the visual representation of black women is increasingly visible in public discourse in France, as Afro-descendant women lead the way.

And then, there is artist and writer Barbara Chase-Riboud, who came to France from the United States in the early 1960s. She writes in her 2025 memoir of the same name: "I always knew." The retrospective of her life and work presented through 2024-2025, in eight iconic Parisian museums, including the Louvre, (Musée d’Orsay, Palais de la Porte Dorée, Musée du Louvre, Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris, Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'Art Moderne, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Musée National des arts asiatiques - Guimet, Palais de Tokyo) is perhaps the most remarkable example of the enduring journey of African American women artist. They always knew, of their relevance, their place. Whether as writer or artist, Barbara Chase-Riboud, from Cleopatra to Sarah Baartman (named the Venus Hottentot) to Sally Hemings and Josephine Baker, elevates Black women in her work. And in so doing, through her work, re-frames the Black woman as equal partner in the world of art, culture, creativity.

 

1. Screen capture of Fragments for Venus

2. Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre

3. Screen capture of Beyoncé in ApeShit

4. Barbara Chase-Riboud, Africa Rising