Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Pocket-Sized Flag

1979

Jean-Michel Basquiat carried a pocket-sized flag he designed.

Using composition notebook paper as a canvas, Basquiat typed groups of the letter X overlaid with red stripes. In the blue square—typically filled with stars representing the 50 states —he inserted a larger white X.

The letter “X” may refer to the X that many formerly enslaved people used to sign their name, or the X that Black Muslims adopted to reject their so-called slave names. It may also refer to the erasing of Black identity, or the star-studded cross of the Confederate flag.