Special Exhibition
This Is Not America's Flag
May 21 - Sep 25, 2022

Overview

Featuring over twenty artists, the special exhibition This Is Not America’s Flag spotlights the myriad ways artists explore the symbol of the flag of the United States of America, underscoring its vast, divergent, and complex meanings.

Titled after Alfredo Jaar’s iconic 1987 work, A Logo for America, This Is Not America’s Flag provides a critical discourse on the symbol’s meaning, the complexity and contradictions of contemporary national identity, and artists as active citizens.

The exhibition was developed conceptually in the summer of 2020 during the groundswell of activism for racial justice in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and was inspired by two works in the Broad collection, Flag (1967) by Jasper Johns and African-American Flag (1990) by David Hammons.

This Is Not America’s Flag presents works from over twenty artists including Laura Aguilar, Nicole Eisenman, Jeffrey Gibson, Jaar, and Johns, as well as African-American Flag (1990) by Hammons acquired by The Broad in 2019 and America (2021) by Hank Willis Thomas acquired last year. The exhibition includes works that both embrace the flag as the signifier of the nation and its ideals and subvert it to express injustices and inequities woven into the fabric of the U.S., past and present.

FREE THIS IS NOT AMERICA'S FLAG ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES  

Receive free access to This Is Not America’s Flag every Thursday evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and all day during operating hours on July 5 in honor of the Independence Day holiday. Reserve free advance tickets. 


know before you go

Timed tickets will be released on Friday, April 15, at 10 a.m. PT at ticketing.thebroad.org.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for students (with valid student ID), and free for children 17 and under.

Tickets include same-day access to the special exhibition Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow and same-day general admission to The Broad’s third floor galleries, which feature a frequently changing selection of works from the Broad collection.

Get Tickets

Highlighted Artwork

Jasper Johns
1967
encaustic and collage on canvas (three panels)
33 1/2 x 56 1/4 in. (85.09 x 142.88 cm)
David Hammons
1990
dyed cotton
59 x 92 1/4 in. (149.86 x 234.315 cm)
Hank Willis Thomas
2021
mixed media including U.S. flags
72 1/2 x 170 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (184.15 x 433.07 x 8.26 cm)
Cindy Sherman
2000
chromogenic color print
36 x 24 in. (91.44 x 60.96 cm)
Glenn Ligon
2014
neon and paint
48 x 145 x 3 in. (121.9 x 368.3 x 7.6 cm)
Déjà Vu‐Do
John Wilfred Outterbridge
ca. 1979–1992
Mixed media
Three Eagles Flying
Laura Aguilar
1990
Gelatin silver print
A Logo for America
Alfredo Jaar
1987
Animation, 38'
Extra Value (After Venus)
Genevieve Gaignard
2016
Chromogenic print