The African American flag by David Hammons

Created from the Pan-African flag of 1920, designed by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, Hammons' flag reimagined it. The artist replaced the United States flag with the colors of the Pan-African movement. With this, he invites the public to reflect on the place of African Americans in U.S. history.

The Pan-African flag emerged as a response to the racist song "Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon" and served as a unifying symbol for Black people, legitimizing them as a unified nation after centuries of slavery and exclusion.

Hammons created the African-American Flag for Black USA, a 1990 exhibition at the Overholland Museum in Amsterdam, which was the first exhibition of African American art organized by a European museum.

Jan Christiaan Braun, the museum's curator, requested something special to install outside the building, using the flagpole as a symbol of "liberation" for Black art. Hammons' flag was the answer - he sketched on a napkin a U.S. flag, but replaced the traditional colors with red, black, and green, from the Black Liberation Flag.

"Marcus Garvey created the African American Flag, which looked like the flag of Italy, but in red, black, and green. But it was so abstract and pure that the masses were frightened of it. I created my flag because I felt they needed one like the flag of the United States, but with black stars instead of white ones." - David Hammons

THE ARTIST

David Hammons is an American artist born on July 24, 1943, in Springfield, Illinois, United States. He does things on his own terms and has sometimes become a figure marked by elusiveness. He does not often appear at events, and it’s not that there is an abundance of them.

Hammons spent most of his life in New York. He also lived in Los Angeles for a decade early in his artistic career.

"David Hammons is among the most important and fascinating artists of our time, defined by his political stance and refusal to confine himself to a specific aesthetic or medium. Yet, there is a unifying thread in his work, with his pieces being consistently insightful, moving, visually striking, and politically engaged. His volatile relationship with the art establishment and the political commentary inherent in his work reflect the complexities of the time we live in, resulting in his unique way of visualizing the different truths that each of us experiences." - states Jean-Paul Engelen, global co-head of 20th and Contemporary Art at Phillips.

THE FLAG

One of the artist's most well-known works, the ‘African-American Flag’ was created in 1990 for the exhibition and was used to raise awareness about the lack of representation of African American artists in Europe.

For a long time, the flag has been a recurring element in the artist's work, also featuring in Hammons' early body print works. He has a unique working style, which does not involve conventional means, academic theory, or formalism. He was once sensationally quoted saying:

“I really don't like art. Never, ever liked art, never.”

Hammons' art conveys the Black linguistic act of “signifyin.” Henry Louis Gates defined the term “signifyin” as the quintessential version of Black creativity.

His inspiration came from two contrasting symbols: the U.S. flag and Marcus Garvey's Pan-African flag, adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League in 1920.

He fused the two flags to evoke a conversation about the fragile history behind the United States flag and the contradictory messages it conveys about its history. The flag's design was also inspired by the Watts riots, which occurred in the Watts area of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965.

THE COLORS OF THE FLAG:

• Red: the blood that unites all people of African descent and that was shed for liberation;

• Black: the Black people, whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag;

• Green: the abundant natural wealth of Africa.

In the end, the flag conveys a sense of pride and affirms the presence of African Americans in the United States, stating that being Black and being American are one and the same. For many decades, the flag has become an identity for Harlem, connecting them to modern arts and the diaspora. It is recognized as an important political statement for the African American community.

In African-American Flag and in his other works, Hammons regularly infuses powerful symbols with a new connotation. Instead of directly collaborating with the Pan-African movement, the borrowing of its colors within the context of the original American flag serves as a timely reminder of the countless contributions made by African Americans throughout U.S. history.

The artist combines the two elements to create a new United States flag, assuming a new and unique Black power, which represents individuals that the traditional flag for so long did not represent.

There are several accepted myths about the origins and meanings of the original American flag that have no basis in reality. However, it is universally seen as an emblem of freedom and justice.

Yet, America's path from a colonial outpost to a visionary nation and world power is intertwined with the massacre of Native Americans, four centuries of slavery, Japanese internment, Jim Crow, and, more recently, backlash against immigrants and Muslims. On the other hand, the ‘African American Flag’ is a symbol of a people, a shared history, experience, and perspective.

In 2014, the flag was displayed at the grand opening of Jack Shainman's space in upstate New York, in Kinderhook. It was hung at the top of a flagpole in front of an old school building that currently houses rooms with white walls. The African American Flag foreshadowed the inaugural exhibition of works by artist and sculptor Nick Cave.

The flag was also displayed atop a flagpole in Long Island City, welcoming visitors to the MoMA PS1 Greater New York exhibition in 2015. Since its creation, the African American Flag has been featured in the art world, drawing attention to the satire that permeates the artist's work.

After many years flying outside the Studio Museum in Harlem, the African American Flag was acquired by the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, becoming the first work by David Hammons to be part of the museum's collection. Another edition of the flag is still hung in the courtyard of the Studio Museum in Harlem and is generally made to be displayed every July 4 in African American communities and schools, serving as an educational tool for the younger generation. The flag is also an important part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Arts in Los Angeles.