ART 366 The Legacy of Lincoln: American Art and Culture from 1809 to 1930
An in-depth exploration of American art and culture during and after the Age of Lincoln, beginning in 1809, the year of Lincoln's birth, and culminating with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The focus of the course will be the visual arts, painting, sculpture, and photography, but we will also read important literary works and learn how original forms of American music and art developed during and after the Civil War in response to Lincoln's vision of human liberty and the reconstruction of a democratic and united states of America. Topics include: the work of artists whose careers and artistic production were affected by the Civil War and Reconstruction; the invention of photography and its use during the Civil War; the conquest and settlement of the west and its effect on landscape painting and the formation of a national identity; and the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic and literary movement based in New York, whose creative and intellectual production was a response to the continued exclusion of African American artists from mainstream cultural, economic, and political institutions that had marked the 19th century and continued in the 20th century. Visits to Washington art museums and monuments are an integral part of the course.