Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism by Hamming, Grant; Phillips, Natalie E.;

Short description:

Bringing together scholars from art history, visual studies, and related disciplines, this edited volume asks why Trumpism looks the way it does and what that look means for American – and global – society.

Long description:

Bringing together scholars from art history, visual studies, and related disciplines, this edited volume asks why Trumpism looks the way it does and what that look means for American—and global—society.

Grouped into six categories, the essays in this volume tackle some of the most perplexing—and urgent—aspects of the Trumpist visual project. Two of the most striking aspects of that project are its use of novel commodity forms, including the iconic red baseball caps, as well as its embrace of social media. Trump’s outlandish persona and striking physicality have lent themselves to caricature both from his critics and, perhaps more surprisingly, his supporters. That physicality—as well as his movement’s hearkening back to a (mostly imagined) era of mid-twentieth-century prosperity—has also brought gender and the body into sharp focus. Perhaps second only to the aforementioned red hat is Trumpism’s vigorous use of interventions into public space, including traditional campaign signs as well as flags and other ad hoc visual and architectural materials. Finally, there were the events of January 6, 2021, when many of Trumpism’s most outré visual and cultural preoccupations exploded from the shadows onto television screens across the country. Taken as a whole, the essays in this book examine Trumpist visuality from the seemingly trivial to the starkly horrifying, as well as offering a measured sense of the various resistances and responses that have characterized artistic responses to Trump from the beginning of his prominence.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, American studies, and cultural and media studies.

Table of Contents:

Part I: Introduction  1. Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism  Part II: Social Media and the Internet  2. Towards a Contrarian Postmodernism: Elon Musk and the Ends of Historical Allegory  3. The Politics of Bigfoot Porn, or the Relationship between Sasquatch and the Far Right  4. Trumpism, NFTs, and the Cultural Politics of 21^st Century Kitsch  5. The Worship of a Golden Chair: Patterns and Implications of Warhammer 40.000 References in Trumpist Propaganda  Part III: Commodification and Consumption  6. Where’s the Beef: American Portraiture, Stock Photography, and The Visual Politics of Trump Steaks  7. Cassandra's Curse: Foreshadowing the Trumpian Era - A conversation with Andrew Krasnow  8. “Serious Balls”: Donald Trump as Phallic Symbol in Pop Presidential Paraphernalia   9. Seeing Red: A MAGA Re-Brand  Part IV: Portraiture and Caricature  10. Edel Rodriguez takes on Donald Trump: The Time Magazine Covers  11. Trump’s Court Artist  12. Drain  13. Transmedial Trumpism: Strongman Politics Via Popular Caricature  Part V: Public Space  14. Making American Architecture Great Again? Executive Order 13967  15. Postcommodity’s Aesthetics of Place: An Intervention into Trump’s Picture of the Borderlands  16. The Visual World of Trumpism and Rural MAGA Warriors in Northern California  Part VI: American Sacred Spaces  17. ‘Fake News’ from the Oval Office between the Obama and Trump Administrations, or so we thought  18. From Inauguration Crowds to Capitol Mobs: Photography and Fact in the Post-Truth Era  19. The Flags that Flew on January 6th: DIY Populist Art Plays with the Past