Presented at Judson Memorial Church in 1970, The People's Flag Show brought together more than 150 artists who used the American flag as image, object, and material to confront questions of political expression and collective action. Organized by Jon Hendricks, Faith Ringgold, and Jean Toche, the exhibition emerged amid opposition to the Vietnam War and broader movements for civil rights, feminism, and artistic freedom.
Under the leadership of Reverend Howard Moody, Judson Memorial Church became a center of social activism and experimental culture in Greenwich Village and an important force in New York's downtown avant-garde. The People's Flag Show emerged from the artists, writers, and organizers who gathered there.
Presented in collaboration with NYU's Fales Library and Special Collections, Incendiaries draws extensively from the Judson Memorial Church Archive. Rare photographs, video documentation, and archival materials illuminate a pivotal moment in the intertwined histories of art, activism, and public dissent.
During the exhibition, Ringgold, Hendricks, and Toche, known as the Judson Three, were arrested under New York's flag desecration law for exhibiting artworks that incorporated the American flag. Their convictions became part of the legal history of free expression in the United States and were later cited in Supreme Court decisions that invalidated flag desecration laws.
Incendiaries considers how artists and activists organized in response to war, censorship, and social change. Through The People's Flag Show, the exhibition examines how collective action intersected with political dissent and artistic freedom during moments of profound upheaval.
Curated by Howie Chen with Jon Huron
In collaboration with Fales Library and Special Collections, NYU
Produced by Jon Huron and 80WSE
Erika Airikh, Shreya Dwibedy, and Ariel He, Curatorial Assistants
Olivia Andrews and Kiyomi Taylor, Preparators
Sebin Cho, Sophia Clinard-Rubio, Sebastian Higgins, and Klara Puskeilerova, Student Exhibition Assistants
Special thanks to Fales Library and Special Collections, Judson Memorial Church, Yale Library Special Collections, McCormick Library of Special Collections, Paula Cooper Gallery, Jack Shainman Gallery, Kevin Kelly, Barbara Moore, and Jon Hendricks.
