Morris Louis made some of his most brilliant paintings, the series of canvases called the 'Unfurleds,' between early summer 1960 and late spring 1961, a period coinciding with John F. Kennedy's campaign, election, inauguration, and first few months in office. Alexander Nemerov examines one of the greatest of the 'Unfurleds,' the large painting called *Alpha Tau* in relation to the Kennedy White House.
Alexander Nemerov teaches and writes about American visual culture from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. He has focused primarily on painting but lately has turned more and more to the study of film, theater, and sculpture. His writing often analyzes fiction and poetry alongside works of visual art. His seminars include The Visual Culture of the American Home Front, 1941-1945 and American Art in the Democratic Age, 1830-1860. His recent lecture courses have been a survey of American photography from the daguerreotype to 1971; a survey of American painting and sculpture from Copley to Pollock; and a survey of western art from Giotto to David.