In “For Which it Stands…” (January 23 through July 25, 2026), Fairfield University Art Museum (FUAM) plumbs the American flag as protean symbol of patriotism and protest, beginning with “Italian Day, May, 1918,” by Cos Cob Art Colony member Childe Hassam, and moving through 75 works by such artists as Jasper Johns, Faith Ringgold and Robert Rauschenberg. It’s part of the university’s “America 250: The Promise and Paradox” initiative considering the American Experiment.
Recently, Venü magazine asked Carey Mack Weber – the Frank and Clara Meditz executive director of FUAM, who was integral in the museum’s 2010 creation – to widen her lens and talk about the show in the context of the United States’ complex art history:
Georgette Gouveia: Carey, congratulations on your “For Which It Stands…” exhibit. Why did you want to use the flag and flag artworks as the lenses through which we see the 250th anniversary of the United States?
Carey Weber: “ I wanted to create an exhibition that would commemorate the semiquincentennial in a meaningful way. I lived in Concord, Massachusetts, during the bicentennial celebrations of 1975-76, and it was a very impactful moment in my personal history. I believed that by examining our most enduring national symbol, the one to which we pledge allegiance, through a century of artistic production, I could present a complex visual record of our nation’s triumphs and struggles during the modern era. My goal with the exhibition is to foster civic engagement by highlighting artists whose work invites us to confront the complexities of our past, acknowledge present challenges and imagine future possibilities. The artists in the exhibition reimagine the flag in myriad ways, revealing not only our shared victories but also forms of injustice that continue to demand reckoning.”
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), “Italian Day, May 1918,” 1918, oil on canvas, 36 by 26 inches, Art Bridges Foundation.
GG: Why did you choose to begin your show with Cos Cob Art Colony member Childe Hassam’s “Italian Day, May, 1918”?
CW: “For Which It Stands…” begins with Childe Hassam’s painting for two very practical reasons. First, it was the artwork that sparked the idea for the entire exhibition. In 2021, I was working on curating another exhibition when I found out that this beautiful example of American Impressionism was available for loan from the Art Bridges Foundation. Flags, semiquincentennial: I decided then and there to make it the starting point for an exhibition around the American flag.
“Second, I knew that I wanted the exhibition to continue all the way to the present day, but since we are limited by the sizes of our two gallery spaces, it would have been impossible to present the full range of 250 years. Beginning with World War I allowed us to present just over 100 years of American history and art history, while also presenting a fairly coherent arc throughout the exhibition’s narrative.”
GG: Beginning the exhibition with Childe Hassam’s “Italian Day, May, 1918” also points to Connecticut’s important place in American Impressionism. How did communities such as the Cos Cob Art Colony and the Old Lyme Art Colony become such fertile ground for artists who were adapting European Impressionist ideas into something distinctly American?
CW: “In the late 19th century, Connecticut became a key center for American Impressionism, because it offered exactly the mix of people, place and proximity that the movement needed to take root and evolve beyond its French origins. Connecticut’s coastal towns, of Cos Cob and Old Lyme, were easily accessible from New York City by train, making them ideal summer retreats for artists, illustrators and art teachers who worked in the city during the year. They could escape urban constraints while remaining professionally connected to galleries, patrons and institutions. Offering shimmering coastal light, tidal rivers and varied seasonal color, these locales had conditions perfectly suited to Impressionist concerns with atmosphere and changing light. The softer, more humid New England light differed from that of Giverny, encouraging artists to adapt Impressionism into something more robust and tonally varied.”
N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945), “The Victorious Allies,” 1918, oil on canvas. 45 1/4 by 34 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the Bank of Delaware, 1989.
GG: In the early 20th century, art added a more realistic turn, considering the roles of the farmer and the urban worker, the soldier and the immigrant in paintings by people like Thomas Hart Benton, but also the medium of photography, which included women photographers. Was this the beginning of art’s critical look at the United States?
CW: “Artists in the early 20th century certainly brought a new level of social realism to American art. Their focus on farmers, laborers, immigrants and soldiers, along with the rise of photography, made aspects of American life that had often been idealized or ignored much more visible. Especially during the Great Depression, these works could be deeply critical, exposing inequality, hardship and structural injustice.
“However, this was not the beginning of art’s critical engagement with the United States. Earlier artists, including those of the 19th century, sometimes embedded critique within more traditional or even patriotic forms. What did change in the early 20th century was the directness and visibility of that critique. Movements like American Realism and the work of the Ashcan School embraced everyday life and urban grit, while photography, which circulated in magazines, exhibitions and government-sponsored projects, expanded the audience for socially engaged art.
“So rather than marking a beginning, this moment represents a turning point, when critique became more explicit, more democratic in its subjects and more widely disseminated. It helped establish a tradition of American art that not only reflects the nation’s ideals, but also interrogates its contradictions.”
GG: The Works Progress Administration (WPA), part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, put Depression Era artists and writers to work on government projects. Does the public-private partnership between the government and the arts still endure?
CW: “Today, a large-scale federal employment program, like the WPA, no longer exists. However, a broader public–private partnership model does endure, though in a more decentralized way. State and local governments fund arts councils, percent-for-art programs and public art commissions, keeping art visible in civic spaces. Private philanthropy – foundations, corporations and individual donors – now carries a much larger share of support than in the WPA era. Nonprofits and universities (like museums and cultural organizations), serve as key intermediaries, blending earned income, private giving and public grants. Before the Trump Administration, federal support of the arts via the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided grants, and while its funding was often modest relative to need, it played a catalytic role that is sorely missed.
“What has changed most is the balance of responsibility. In the WPA era, the federal government was the primary driver, and today, support is more patchwork and market-sensitive, which can encourage innovation but also creates instability and inequitable access. So the partnership persists, but not as a single, unified national project, but more as a network of collaborations that vary widely by region, politics and economic conditions.”
Keith Mayerson, “First Men on the Moon”, 2012, oil on linen. Fairfield University Art Museum, Gift of Avo Samuelian and Hector Manuel Gonzalez. © 2012 Keith Mayerson.
GG: With the end of World War II, the focus shifted to Abstract Expressionism as the locus of the art world moved from Paris to New York. But Pop Art also came to the fore in the postwar era. Your show contains two of that movement’s kingpins, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. How did Pop Art portray the flag in a new light?
CW: “Pop artists often incorporated everyday objects as art materials or used these objects from popular or mass culture as the subject matter for their artistic practice. An exhibition focusing on the American flag would not have been complete without the work of Jasper Johns, who, more than any other artist, is inextricably linked to the flag through his continued exploration of it through dozens of paintings and prints created throughout his storied career. At the time, Johns’ treatment of the flag in his paintings and prints was quite subversive; no other artist had flattened and distorted the national symbol like this before.”
GG: Yet today Johns’ flag works are considered more classic than subversive, while other works retain their confrontational edge. How might we think of patriotism and protest in art – mighty opposites, complements?
CW: “In the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era in ‘For Which It Stands…,’ artists such as Faith Ringgold and David Hammons confronted the gap between American ideals and lived realities, particularly around race. Their work insists that holding the nation accountable to its promises is itself a form of patriotic engagement.
“What distinguishes this era is the visibility and urgency of dissent. Protest is no longer coded or subtle; it is often central to the work’s meaning. But that protest frequently stems from a deep investment in the country’s professed values of freedom, equality and justice, and a demand that those values be realized.
“So rather than opposites, patriotism and protest in this period function as productive tension. Artists critique the nation not because they reject it outright, but because they take its ideals seriously enough to challenge its failures.”
James Prosek, Invisible Boundaries, 2021, acrylic on panel. Courtesy of the artist and Waqas Wajahat, New York. © James Prosek
GG: It’s no secret that the arts are at an inflection point in this country – funding slashed, works removed from galleries, exhibits and performances canceled. Your show is part of Fairfield University’s “America250: The Promise and Paradox’ initiative of programs, performances and exhibits. What is the promise and the paradox?
CW: “The title ‘America250: The Promise and Paradox’ works as both a commemoration and a critical framework. “The Promise” points to the ideals for our country articulated in founding documents like the ‘Declaration of Independence,’ those of liberty, equality, self-determination and opportunity. It evokes the aspirational vision of what the United States claims to be.
“‘The Paradox’ acknowledges the persistent gap between those ideals and our lived reality. We are a nation founded on freedom that also sanctioned slavery, a democracy that historically excluded many from full participation, and a culture that celebrates equality while tolerating deep inequities. Taken together, the title suggests that the United States can only be understood by holding these two truths at once. It invites viewers not just to celebrate but to grapple with contradiction – to see American history and culture as an ongoing negotiation between what the country promises and what it has delivered. What this exhibition strives to do is allow artists to explain this paradox and illustrate where the promise has fallen short, in the ways that are most meaningful to them.”
All artwork images are from “For Which It Stands…,” at the Fairfield University Art Museum, unless otherwise noted.
Carey Mack Weber
Carey Mack Weber is the Executive Director of the Fairfield University Art Museum. She was integral to the creation of the Museum in 2010 and was named the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director in 2019.
Carey also currently serves as the President of the Connecticut Art Trail, is the CT State Representative for the Association of Academic Art Museums and Galleries, sits on the Advisory Board of the Maguire Museum at St. Joseph’s University, and serves as a board member of the Connecticut League of Museums.
Georgette Gouveia is cultural writer and luxury editor of the Westfair Business Journal. She’s also the author of a blog and book series, about the power dynamic in culture, at www.thegamesmenplay.com
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