The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding 1967

Faith Ringgold made “The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding” with acrylic on canvas, and right away I'm struck by how the stars and stripes are not just a backdrop, but part of the story, part of these figures. You can feel Ringgold pushing paint around, trying to pin down the feeling of these three figures trapped in the American flag. Her people emerge, flat and intentionally unrefined, with the flag painted across them, bleeding down the canvas. The faces are so strange and haunting, so direct, that I find myself looking for their intention, trying to imagine what it might have been like to create them. What did Ringgold want to communicate? It reminds me of other painters who use the figure to convey larger emotions and stories, like Philip Guston. Artists are always in conversation with each other, inspiring each other to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. Ringgold's work allows for multiple interpretations, a place for us to reflect on what it means to be American.