What is American Art?

In the U.S.’s increasingly pluralistic society, the idea that works of art should be discussed in separate groups based on a perception of a shared “identity” among the objects’ makers, rather than on the works’ thematic or conceptual affinities, seems increasingly regressive. Shaw will examine the historical, curatorial, and critical strategies and tactics for using such markers as race, gender, sexuality, and regional identity to interpret art today.