Picturing the Body Politic:Art & Visual Culture in the US (VMS-0124)

Fall 2026 · VMS 0124 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines the major movements, historical events and cultural influences shaping the visual cultures of the United States, as artists explored selfhood and a developing national identity through imagery. Although we will embrace the 'fine arts,' our investigation exceeds their traditional limits: we will investigate how Americans established models of the 'body politic' via caricature and illustration, performance, photography, advertisements and other emerging mass media. Regarding art alongside the formative events and concerns that shaped American culture, society, and politics allows us to question the formation of social roles and identities, examine aesthetic and material practices, and explore what it has meant to be 'American' in diverse communities, at differing periods and places, across two centuries. As visual culture presented dynamic and often contested points of view about American self and society, we will consider whether issues important in the development of the nation remain significant to artists today.

Course codes: VMS-0124, VMS 0124, VMS0124, VMS-124, VMS 124, VMS124

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