¡Que Bonita Bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag in Folk Art - People and Art Works
Date2003
Mediumslides
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.348.1-.10
DescriptionPhotographs of people and art works used in the original ¡Que Bonita Bandera! exhibit developed by City Lore.
2015.196.348.1: Image showing person wearing Puerto Rican flag sunglasses, necklace, hat, and shirt
2015.196.348.2: Image showing person wearing Ponce style vejigante mask and costume; onlookers in background
2015.196.348.3: Image showing store security gate mural of Tito Puente, with two painted Puerto Rican flags
2015.196.348.4: Image showing Volkswagen Beetle painted to resemble Puerto Rican flag; car has New York plates reading “PR BUG”
2015.196.348.5: Image showing person riding bicycle covered in flags
2015.196.348.6: Image showing Puerto Rican flag made from lace by Rosa Elena Egipciaco
2015.196.348.7: Image showing mural reading “IN LOVING MEMORY OF Johnny” with Puerto Rican flag as background
2015.196.348.8: Image showing person wearing Ponce style vejigante mask and costume
2015.196.348.9: Image showing person holding tambourine painted with Puerto Rican flag
2015.196.348.10: Image showing tire cover painted with Puerto Rican flag
NotesSubject Note: The exhibition, ¡Que Bonita Bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag in Folk Art opened at the Institute for Community Gallery in Hartford on July 10, 2003 and continued until September 12, 2003. Featuring depictions of the beloved flag image in a variety of folk art forms, the multimedia exhibit included musical instruments, mundillo lace, paintings, masks, posters, murals, and clothing. The powerful symbol of the flag, and its ability to identify and uplift the Puerto Rican community, inspired the exhibit and associated programming. The opening event featured música típica, bomba dance, and Taino music to illustrate the three cultural strands in Puerto Rico. The project’s goal was to use art to inform audiences about the vibrant cultural expressions and the values of Puerto Rican neighbors in Hartford and Connecticut.2015.196.348.1: Image showing person wearing Puerto Rican flag sunglasses, necklace, hat, and shirt
2015.196.348.2: Image showing person wearing Ponce style vejigante mask and costume; onlookers in background
2015.196.348.3: Image showing store security gate mural of Tito Puente, with two painted Puerto Rican flags
2015.196.348.4: Image showing Volkswagen Beetle painted to resemble Puerto Rican flag; car has New York plates reading “PR BUG”
2015.196.348.5: Image showing person riding bicycle covered in flags
2015.196.348.6: Image showing Puerto Rican flag made from lace by Rosa Elena Egipciaco
2015.196.348.7: Image showing mural reading “IN LOVING MEMORY OF Johnny” with Puerto Rican flag as background
2015.196.348.8: Image showing person wearing Ponce style vejigante mask and costume
2015.196.348.9: Image showing person holding tambourine painted with Puerto Rican flag
2015.196.348.10: Image showing tire cover painted with Puerto Rican flag
The exhibit was developed and circulated by City Lore, a longstanding community arts organization in New York City whose mission is to foster New York’s and America’s living cultural heritage. Curated by folklorist Elena Martinez and artist George Zavala, ¡Que Bonita Bandera! opened at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. After the Hartford showing - the only New England venue - the exhibit traveled to the New Jersey Historical Society and the New York Historical Society. Original funding for the exhibit came from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Scherman Foundation, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. ICR’s Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collaborated with City Lore in the planning and scheduling of ¡Que Bonita Bandera! from the beginning of the project. Hartford project funders are the Institute for Community Research, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the City of Hartford, Connecticut Light and Power Co., the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The exhibit featured traditional Puerto Rican mundillo lace, carnival vejigante masks, photographs and samples of murals and urban memorial wall art, and assemblages that use the imagery of the flag in public parades and festivals as well as private spaces and altars in the home. Framed photographs by Martha Cooper and Carlos Ortíz depicted contemporary urban expressions of the flag symbol, and black and white framed photographs from the CUNY Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños documented historical contexts and uses of the flag. Further information on Puerto Rican history was provided through bilingual signage and a video.
In addition to the art included with the exhibit, CCHAP added Connecticut-based artists’ depictions of the flag in photographs by Juan Fuentes; in a poster by master printmaker Samuel Lind for the New Haven Puerto Rican Day Parade; on cuatros made by Edwin Rios and Graciela Quiñones-Rodriquez, ceramics by Victor Pacheco, cakes decorated with the flag design, car decorations, and other local folk and popular art works. CCHAP augmented the signage, in English and Spanish. CCHAP produced a banner for the exhibit, with an image of artist Victor Pacheco’s mural from Park Street, and this was hung on the side of the building facing Wyllys Street. The exhibit was reviewed by art critic Patricia Rosoff in a full page article in the Hartford Advocate.
The use and meaning of the Puerto Rican flag can be understood as a folk tradition in the way that both handmade and mass-produced items depicting the flag signify shared values and group beliefs, and express political and cultural identity. In addition to its interesting political history going back to the time of Spanish control of the island, the flag today reminds Puerto Ricans living on the mainland of their roots on the island. Particularly during the Puerto Rican Day Parades, T-shirts and bandanas are not only emblazoned with the flag but whole arrangements of flag designs transform people, cars, bicycles, and baby strollers into mobile works of community-based art. The exhibit also includes music in both ambient sound and featured special performances, because it is one of the most significant ways Puerto Ricans of all generations have defined, shared, and retained their culture
Artists featured in the exhibit: José Castrodad, Wilfredo “Bio” Feliciano, Rosa Elena Egipciaco, Antonio “Chico” Garcia, Jorge Flores Silva, Francisco López, Beatriz Nazario Torres, Wanda Quiñones, George Zavala, Ramoncita Zavala Ramos. Artists featured in Hartford: Juan Fuentes, Graciela Quiñones Rodríquez, Ilka Robles.
Additional materials and information on the exhibit and artists exists in the CCHAP archive
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Glaisma Pérez Silva
July 1999
Ilka Robles
July-September 2003
