AS 6330 - Visualizing America

Credits: 3

Description This course examines the visual production of U.S. artists and photographers, ranging from the majesty of Hudson River school canvases to Andy Warhol’s glib, late twentieth-century soup cans. The course identifies and traces central “American” themes. Neither a survey of American art, nor a history survey, the course locates U.S. artists and their work within: U.S. society, politics, economics and culture; ideologies; modes of production and circulation; artistic milieus; and transnational interactions. Themes may include: the individual versus the collective; a unitary versus pluralistic national identity; invented pasts versus modernizing aspirations; and urban versus agrarian or frontier focus.