1. Emanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, mural in U.S Capitol, 1861. (click through for high-res.) I’m taking American Art I this semester and I was assigned this work to give a “Masterpiece Talk” on. At first I groaned, like, Manifest Destiny, seriously? Gross. But now I’m kind of excited and think I can find a lot of interesting things to talk about. Unsurprisingly it’s the young black man in the middle foreground who intrigues me the most. (Semi-related tangent: I was looking at the GOP platform today and the section on military/security/foreign policy is called “American Exceptionalism.” STFU, guys. I can’t even.)

    Emanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, mural in U.S Capitol, 1861. (click through for high-res.)

    I’m taking American Art I this semester and I was assigned this work to give a “Masterpiece Talk” on. At first I groaned, like, Manifest Destiny, seriously? Gross. But now I’m kind of excited and think I can find a lot of interesting things to talk about. Unsurprisingly it’s the young black man in the middle foreground who intrigues me the most.

    (Semi-related tangent: I was looking at the GOP platform today and the section on military/security/foreign policy is called “American Exceptionalism.” STFU, guys. I can’t even.)