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The term “Presidential Look” is aroused when then candidate Donald Trump questions whether his opponent, the former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, looks presidential during the 2016 Presidential Election. This panel aims to provide critical perspectives on art and visual culture related to the President of the United States (POTUS) and the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS). We try to re-conceptualize the ways in which the POTUS/FLOTUS is visualized, documented, and embodied. How does an image or an object related to the POTUS/FLOTUS reflects the artistic value of the time or represents the nation? What roles does the POTUS/FLOTUS play in shaping the public taste or making a social change through the involvement of art?

The session offers four intriguing case studies that range over time and across media. The panel first reexamines Thomas Jefferson’s role in patronage of the arts and as a collector and curator, especially through the life-portrait of George Washington sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon. Secondly, we will have a closer look at Ralph E. W. Earl’s portrait of Andrew Jackson, which retraces the tradition of the presidential portraiture exemplified by Gilbert Stuart's depiction of George Washington. Moving forward, we will reevaluate the White House photographs from multiple perspectives, as both archival document and political propaganda, especially those from the Bush 43 and Obama administrations. Last but not least, the panel contextualizes various representations of the former FLOTUS Michelle Obama in art and fashion after being featured on more than 150 US magazines.