Whitman and the Visual Arts

Abstract

Abstract Walt Whitman and his writings were shaped by the architecture, art, and artists of his time. Some of the most exciting insights into Whitman have arisen from recent analyses his connectedness to international perspectives in the fine arts. During the 1990s, scholars have discerned and published far more about the interrelationships between Whitman and the visual arts than they had in the first hundred years after his death. During his years as a journalist in New York City, Whitman was directly involved in the arts: he attended countless operatic, the atrical, and musical performances, frequented art galleries, befriended many artists, understood the global perspectives they represented, and critiqued them in his newspaper columns. During those years, Whitman was immersed in the form and content of colloquialisms, popular fiction, and mass media used in the service of democracy. During his late years, artists came to Camden, New Jersey, to pay homage to the aging bard and often returned to create a portrait of him. Whitman’s writings continue to authenticate creative urges upwelling in writers and artists and to give them courage to break free from whatever fetters bind their originality. His faith in America and American art is as important today as when he first expressed it.