The most distinctive Vodou art form is the drapo Vodou, an embroidered flag often decorated with sequins or beads, but the term covers a wide range of visual art forms including paintings, embroidered clothing, clay or wooden figures, musical instruments and assemblages.

Robert Farris Thompson makes a plausible connection with Central Africa based on similarities with nkisi figures from the Kongo, and cosmograms, flags, drums and dances from that region.

[3] The traditional religion continued to be banned, and as late as the 1940s the Catholic church undertook a campaign against Vodou, ransacked temples and burned religious artifacts.

Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, writing of Marianne Lehmann's[b] Vodou art collection, notes that "even today, the Creole language does not possess any word to designate what Western civilization qualifies as 'art'.

Benedicty writes that in "the Vodou/Haitian aesthetic system, the objet d'art nurtures ambivalence and demands that the reader or the spectator interpret and thus participate in the production of an artistic text's meaning."

[3] Flags and banners used in the 21st century in rural areas often still have stylistically simple designs, in part due to the high cost of decorative material.

[12] With the older flags the background field that frames the image was usually decorated with widely spaced sequins or beads.

Modern flag makers often completely cover the fabric of the field with sparkling sequins of one color, or with intricate geometrical patterns.

Fortine began to decorate the costumes of Rara band players with sequins, and in 1943 made a drapo Vodou for Damballa from a burlap coffee sack which he stretched on a wooden frame.

Fortine taught his techniques to sequin artists such as Edgard Jean Louis, Sylva Joseph, Clotaire Bazile, and Yves Telemak.

A drapo servis will include an image of a Catholic saint or a vèvè (trace-work emblem) of an lwa[c] (spirit) such as Papa Legba or Ogun of the Yoruba religion.

[16] Art flags show much wider variation in size and theme than drapo servis, and rarely have a fringe.

[3] In the 1950s collectors started to buy drapo Vodou, and the oungan (priests) began to make them for sale as a source of income.

The next generation of artists, active in the 1990s, included Eviland Lalanne, Joseph Oldof Pierre, Le Petit Frere Mogirus, Wagler Vital, Georges Valris, Roland Rockville, Ronald Gouin, and Antoine Oleyant.

"[3] In Port-au-Prince the skilled drapo artists have ready access to beads and sequins brought in from Canada and the United States.

[12] In the 21st century there have been considerable changes to drapo Vodou as an art-form, in which artists such as Myrlande Constant[d] have introduced new themes and techniques.

Other contemporary drapo artists include Evelyn Alcide, Roudy Azor, Gabriel Chery, Lindor Chiler, Mireille Delice, Christian Dorleus and Josiane Joseph.

Their large and elaborate drapo represent in greater details the interactions with the lwas in events such as Vodou ceremonies and weddings.

[18] In 1949 fifteen artists decorated the Episcopal Saint Trinite Cathedral in Port-au-Prince with murals that contrast Vodou art and traditional scenes from the bible.

Thus the "Damballah Virgin" by Andre Dimanche was identified as Erzulie, a lwa connected to Aphrodite, Mater Dolorosa, health and an angry Madonna.

"[21] Pierrot Barra (1942–99) and Marie Cassaise made sacred altar installations from everyday objects such as dolls, sunglasses, sequins, speedometers, rosaries, mirrors and tinsel.

[22] A red fabric snake was wrapped round the body of the goddess, and a small rubber baby doll was at the foot of the statue.