Faith Ringgold and artists use of flags in their work

1. Faith Ringgold

2. Die, 1967,
Oil on canvas, two panels

3. Faith Ringgold
The French Collection
Part I-No7 1991
Acrylic on canvas printed and
tie-dyed pieced fabric and ink

4. FaithRinggold
The Wake and
Resurrection of the
Bicentennial Negro
1975-89
Mixed media
Bena and Buba (1976), 70 x 36 x 4 in, Flag
Pad (1976) 70 x 36 x 2 in, Moma and Nana
(1976), 76 x 40 x 16 in, Flowers (1976) 18 x
22 x 12 in, Three in a Bed (1981) 10 x 24 x
22 in
In 1976, Faith Ringgold created the
performance The Wake and Resurrection of
the Bicentennial Negro, a multi-media
performance piece that she created as a
response to the celebration of the United
States Bicentennial commemorating the
adoption of the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776.

5. The Wake and
Resurrection of
the
Bicentennial
Negro
tells the story of Buba,
who died of a drug
overdose, and his wife
Bena, who thereupon dies
of grief. Both of the
deceased are mourned by
their relatives and
acquaintances, but are
then resurrected. After
their resurrection, Buba
is free of drugs and
Bena has a greater sense
of empowerment to live
independently. Ringgold

8. Title: Freedom of Speech
Artist: Faith Ringgold
(American, born New York,
1930)
Date: 1990
Medium: Acrylic and
graphite on paper
Dimensions: 24 × 35 3/4
in. (61 × 90.8 cm)

9. Flag for the
Moon: Die
N***er by Faith
Ringgold (1969)

10. The Flag is
Bleeding,
1967
(oil on canvas)

11. Faith Ringgold
The American Collection 6
The Flag is Bleeding 2
1997

12. Flags!
• Flags have been used in contemporary art to convey a range of messages, from
political statements to cultural identity. According to a Four Corners Books article,
the American flag has been a recurring trope in art since Jasper Johns recreated
it in 1954. Depicting the flag at that point was a huge conceptual statement,
exuding a sense of political criticality that questioned its meaning and the line
between representation and object. Since then, artists such as David Hammons,
Faith Ringgold, Mark Flood, and Barbara Kruger have used the flag to highlight
issues around protest politics, race, queerness, gender, and the general failure of
the American dream.
• Flags have been used throughout history as forms of international propaganda
and symbolic ownership. It is not surprising that artists are reworking them in the
name of decolonization. Larry Achiampong’s Pan African Flag For The Relic
Travellers (Ascension) manifested as a series of flags but also as a performance,
audio, moving image, and more 1.
• Flags have also been used to represent cultural identity. For example,
the Contemporary Art Stavanger website suggests that flags have stood as
simple, striking representations of people groups, directives, and socio-political
movements. The recognizable image of flags and their graphic quality render
them an attractive medium for artists.

13. In recent years, many international artists have used the medium
of the flag as a space to display and conceive different types of
imagery. At times these are playful, such as Jeremy Deller’s
yellow smiley face flag, a collaboration with graphic designer
Fraser Muggeridge which hung above London’s Somerset House
in honour of the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia. The
flag was a nod to the culture of acid house music which has been
an ongoing focus for Deller in an examination of the relationship
between class and culture in contemporary Britain. In other
cases, such as Adam Pendleton’s Black Dada Flag (Black Lives
Matter) the political context and use of flags is more immediately
present.

14. African
American
Flag
- David
Hammonds
1990

15. Make America nice terrible
happy racist friendly--- Again
by GANZEER
Ganzeer (Egyptian Arabic: ‫جنزير‬pronounced
[ɡænˈziːɾ], "chain") (born 1982 in Giza[2]) is the
pseudonym used by an Egyptian artist who has
gained mainstream fame in Egypt and
internationally following the 2011 Egyptian
Revolution

16. <
Sara Rahbar: flag 17,
unstable, you disappear in
the distance, 2008
>
Sara Rahbar: Glorious
Haze, 2012

17. Larry
Achiampong: Pan
African Flag For
The Relic
Travellers’
Alliance
(Ascension),
2017

18. Jasper Johns
Flag is an encaustic
painting by the American
artist Jasper Johns. It was
created in 1954-1955,
when Johns was 24, two
years after he was
discharged from the US
Army. This painting was
the first of many works
that Johns made, as he
said, that were inspired
by a dream of the U.S.
flag in 1954. It is arguably
the painting for which
Johns is best
known.[citation needed]
It is held in the Museum
of Modern Art, in New
York