Republic of virtue

Episode number 1 of Series “American visions”.
In this first program of the series, Robert Hughes announces his intention to look at America through the lens of its visual culture and to see what we can tell about the American experience through the things Americans have made. The program charts the foundation of American identity following the War of Independence and ends on the eve of the American Civil War. The dominance of neo-classicism as a style which would imbue the nation with age-old values came to rule the aesthetics behind the building of Washington, D. C. America’s first major architect, Thomas Jefferson, is profiled with sequences at his home in Monticello and The University of Virginia, both of which he designed. The capital’s monuments to George Washington and Lincoln echo the need for authority, carried through in minimalist form today by the Vietnam Memorial designed by Maya Lin. The work of the nation’s first major painters; Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Charles Willson Peale is outlined and the paintings in the Capitol Building are described. Written and presented by Robert Hughes.