Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism

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 Americanand globalsociety.

Grouped into six categories, the essays in this volume tackle some of the most perplexingand urgentaspects 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. Trumps outlandish persona and striking physicality have lent themselves to caricature both from his critics and, perhaps more surprisingly, his supporters. That physicalityas well as his movements hearkening back to a (mostly imagined) era of mid-twentieth-century prosperityhas also brought gender and the body into sharp focus. Perhaps second only to the aforementioned red hat is Trumpisms 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 Trumpisms 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.