In 1990, the American artist Robert Longo debuted a series of black flags made of bronze at the Metro Pictures gallery in New York City. Made from the lost wax method, the casts appear darkened at a distance but maintain textural details up close, including folds and small tears along the margin. Each of Longo's flags represents a historical figure - Black Flag 3 (Give Us Back Our Suffering, Florence Nightingale) (1990) refers to the English social reformer. Longo's experimentation with the form of a flag recalls Jasper Johns' flag paintings, which merged subject and material in abstraction.

In an interview conducted with the Archives of American Art, Longo explained, "I read an article about how, the whole thing about how they're trying to outlaw the burning of the American flag and how they're trying to make flags out of, like, non-flammable things. At the same time I see this image in a Palestinian refugee camp of them flying a black flag over the refugee camp because it's just- it's basically, like, there's this incredible hopelessness that occurs."[1] Longo identifies the flag as a unique symbol that can convey a collective frustration, as well as a tool which can be subverted.