We as Americans are used to seeing the image of the American Flag everywhere. It is the ultimate sign of patriotism like any country’s flag. It is a symbol of pride and the American spirit. More recently, in modern and contemporary art, the symbol of the American flag has been co-opted to represent other things.
Abstract Expressionist painter Jasper Johns turned the image of the flag into a pop art icon, much akin to Andy Warhol’s silk screen prints of a Campbell’s Soup can. The appropriation of American symbolism has since been a topic of popular debate among artists and art historians alike.
A contemporary and rather controversial artist to do this is Lebanese American artist Doris Bittar. Bittar’s work is unique in that she frames the American flag and other Western icons from a distinctly Arab American standpoint. She weaves together American, European, and Middle Eastern cultures through her images. She uses Arab, and more specifically, Islamic imagery to frame and to comment upon American values and icons.
When asked about her work, Bittar states that she uses colonialism as one of her main influences. When the Gulf War happened in 1991, Bittar felt alienated. As an Arab American, she saw her friends and even family members have a very pro-American one sided view of the war. As an Arab American, she is caught between the two cultures. Since then, she has never gotten rid of the feeling of alienation. Her use of distinctly Islamic motifs on American imagery conveys this confliction within her identity. She sees the rest of the world, and specifically America, through the cultural lens of an Arab American. She is not unpatriotic, like the concept mentioned in Ella Shohat and Robert Stam’s book “Flagging Patriotism” defines, nor is she xenophobic. She is simply trying to navigate the idea of what it means to be an Arab American post-gulf war and 9/11. 
Bittar’s work challenges the idea of what it means to be an American. The American icons of apple pie, baseball, and above all, the American flag are nostalgic symbols of Americanism. America no longer embodies the idea of “Main Street U.S.A.” with white heteronormative practices of the nuclear family and success through hard work (if it ever actually did). Times are changing- and the immigrant story is becoming more and more relevant. Hyphenated identities are becoming the norm and in turn, what it means to be an American. Bittar’s unique and witty combinations of American and Middle Eastern imagery are the visual interpretation of the hyphenated identity of an immigrant. As an immigrant who came to the U.S. when she was 6 years old, she is struggling to take hold of her Lebanese identity as well as the American one. She is visualizing the struggle between these two cultures in her paintings. Her story is just one out of the millions who have immigrated here.
Bittar’s work also recognizes the personal struggle of individuals, both here in the U.S. and abroad. Her series Coffee Stories, recognizes the story of the individual through the common, but personal practice of making coffee. Her work bridges the gap between the stories of the millions to the uniquely personal story of the individual. This is in addition to the bridging and combining of cultures through the combination of popular cultural imagery. To see more of Doris Bittar’s work, check out her website and the Youtube video below.
Bibliography
Babaie, Sussan. "Visual Cultures of Islam." Ann Arbor. Winter 2008. Lecture.
"Doris Bittar." Welcome to DorisBittar.com. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. <http://www.dorisbittar.com/>.
Potts, Alex. "Modernism and Abstract Expressionism." HistArt 272. Ann Arbor. Fall 2009. Lecture.
Stam, Robert, and Ella Shohat. "Preface." Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
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