Walt Whitman was self-proclaimed Poet of the Nation and as such has been fully absorbed into American culture and arts. Whitman and his themes of democracy, spirituality, and connectivity have become ingrained in many various art forms. With my project, I have continued his theme of human connection through shared human experience using “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” as a foundation my project and built upon this foundation by searching for human connection through experience in visual art.
I chose to use “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” because it is a poem about human connection transcending time and space. The idea of transcending time and space is integral to my project because the whole concept of shared human experience is dependent on continuity in the human experience. In this poem and many others, Whitman’s connection with his reader exists in a shared visual experience. Because the act of looking prevents a disconnect between Whitman and his audience (regardless of time or place), and because so much of Whitman’s poetry is extremely visual, it feels natural to connect Whitman and his ideas to visual art. Also, Whitman was very interested in the visual arts and formed relationships with many artists in his lifetime so I wanted to explore their influence on him in addition to his influence.
I chose to move chronologically through three major artistic movements that occurred in America since Whitman’s lifetime: American Realism, a movement that occurred during his life time and was directly affected by Whitman; Modernism, which continued Whitman’s idea of human connection in the rapidly evolving American culture and identity; and Abstract Expressionism, which (like Whitman) refused to be contained by artistic tradition and focused on the individual reaction to art. In all of these movements, I’ve explored how Whitman’s concept of universal connectivity can be experienced even in artists who don’t explicitly claim Whitman as inspiration. I wanted to move beyond where Whitman can be seen in art history and bring Whitman into contemporary art. While I think his themes of connection and democracy could be seen in many artists, I focused on Ivan Cash – a conceptual artist who explores the various ways that people connect with each other in the Information Age.
It is easy to draw parallels between Whitman’s poetic ideas and other art forms. However, I didn’t want to just find things that are Whitmanian in visual art, I wanted to build on his ideas (specifically that of human connection) and explore that same idea as it is seen in visual art from Whitman’s lifetime to today.
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