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This course explores the fundamental question: who counts as an American in American Art? Through our examination of objects, texts, and public collections we will document the marginalized, obscured, and omitted populations in traditional conceptions of American Art. Our goal is to understand the political and social impact of these absences. In this seminar, we will address the concept of cultural representation, both as image and agent, in art produced in the United States. Texts from art criticism, museum studies, gender studies, and ethnic studies will inform our investigations. We will also survey museum collections to understand the role of institutions in selecting, canonizing, and preserving a particular view of American culture. Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to power as it relates to class, race, gender, and sexuality. We will begin in the mid-nineteenth century with the emergence of photography and the establishment of public art museums in the United States. At the postwar period, when the art world shifted from Paris to New York, we will consider how culture externally served political dominance while internally reinscribing elitism. We will examine the role of art in feminist, Black, Chicano, and Asian American civil rights movements and conclude with an investigation of museum efforts to address the complexity of American identity today.