African-American Flag by David Hammonds in the Museum of Modern Art, October 2010

David Hammons

African-American Flag

1990

Medium: Printed cotton

Dimensions: 56" x 7' 4" (142.2 x 223.5 cm)

Edition: 5 (This edition was the first version of Hammons's African-American Flag.)

Credit: Gift of The Over Holland Foundation. David Hammons created this flag for the groundbreaking exhibition "Black USA" curated by Jan Christiaan Braun in Amsterdam, April 7 -
July 29, 1990.

Object number: 296.1997

African American Flag reimagines the United States flag, replacing its colors with the red, green, and black of the Pan-African Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded in 1914. Hammons created this version—one in an edition of ten—for an exhibition at Jack Tilton Gallery in New York City in 1990. The installation featured African American Flag as well as the flags of South Korea and Yemen, each suspended above an oil drum containing a block of ice that gradually melted. Titled Who’s Ice Is Colder, the presentation slyly parodied the rivalries that existed among residents from the three communities over the ownership of neighborhood corner stores and bodegas throughout New York City.-- Gallery label from 2024


Text from: www.moma.org/collection/works/81317