The Southampton Arts Center’s next exhibition is very likely unique in the annals of the East End’s arts institutions. “Independency: The American Flag at 250 Years,” which opens on Saturday, combines visual art with American history, pairing a collection of American flags and historic textiles — dating from a 1775 George Washington textile to flags from the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan — with a selection of abstract paintings by Sean Scully, whose influential work is concurrently on view at the Parrish Art Museum.
The flags and textiles have been collected since his boyhood by John Monsky, a historian, writer, lawyer, and producer of the American History Unbound series of multimedia programs combining live music, photographs, and film from the National Archives; historic flags, and material culture to explore watershed moments in American history.
Mr. Monsky, who has a house in Southampton, has curated the exhibition with Christina M. Strassfield, the executive director of the arts center. It is the first time his collection has been shown in its entirety. In addition to the flags, textiles, and Mr. Scully’s paintings, the show includes photographs, drawings, and prints to provide historical context.
The first of the exhibition’s four galleries includes an introduction to the role flags have played in our history, the artistry of the stars and stripes, and the use of that geometry in art, represented by Mr. Scully’s paintings.
Gallery two examines the role flags and kerchiefs have played in politics and civic discourse, including the presidential campaigns of Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, and Ulysses S. Grant, as well as paintings by Mr. Scully.
Titled “Vietnam and the Moon,” the third gallery includes a tattered flag from a Swift Boat in Vietnam occupied by 20-year-old boys juxtaposed with a “Love” flag from San Francisco, ca. 1968. Textiles from the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart and flags placed on the surface of the moon pay homage to the country’s passion for exploration.
“Sacrifice,” the fourth gallery, reflects both the peaks and valleys of America’s conflicts. It includes a pennant flown by the U.S.S. Constitution in the War of 1812; the flag carried by the XXV Corps, a Civil War unit made up almost entirely of African-Americans who fought for the Union; flags that landed on Normandy on D-Day, and one carried by a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan.
Commenting on the exhibition, Mr. Monsky said, “These flags reflect our history, tell our story. Flags that were at rallies, battles, celebrations — flags that were present at hope-filled moments and flags that flew during moments of tragedy. It is also important to appreciate the flag as a geometric object. Its creation was an artistic act. . . . We look at the flag every day, but rarely do we contemplate its design and the moments its design captures.”
Of Mr. Scully’s work, Ms. Strassfield has said, “It adds another dimension to this exhibition. It makes us examine the historical flags, their shapes, dimensions, and proportions more closely, and see how contemporary artists have reused and reinvented those elements in their own work.”
As for the artist, he has said, “My work constantly quotes flags and banners and shifting national identities.”
Mr. Monsky’s American History Unbound programs have been commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Presents series and been seen at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, the New York Historical, the Parrish Art Museum, and Yale University, among others. His flag collection has been featured in The New Yorker, Art & Antiques magazine, and other publications. He is a senior partner of Oak Hill Capital, an investment firm.
“Independency” will run through July 16.
