The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture - Hardcover

$65.00
$65.00
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The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture
  • The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture
The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture - Hardcover

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture - Hardcover

by Karen Lemmey , Tobias Wofford , Grace Yasumura
$65.00
$65.00

Book Overview

by Karen Lemmey (Author), Tobias Wofford (Author), Grace Yasumura (Author)

A major new survey of American sculpture, exploring how it both reflects and redefines concepts of race and identity in the United States

How does American sculpture intersect with the history of race in the United States? The three-dimensional qualities of sculpture give it a distinct advantage over other art forms in capturing a subject's likeness, and our minds can swiftly conjure a body and racialize it from the most minimal of prompts. The Shape of Power examines the role of American sculpture, from the nineteenth century to today, in understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States and how this medium has shaped the way generations have learned to visualize and think about race.

Exploring the relationship between sculpture and ideas about race in the United States, this book provides fresh perspectives on artists ranging from Hiram Powers, Edmonia Lewis, and Augusta Savage to Barbara Chase-Riboud, Titus Kaphar, Raven Halfmoon, Sanford Biggers, Betye Saar, Yolanda López, and Simone Leigh. It reveals how sculptors use this versatile medium to challenge discriminatory ideologies and entrenched social and cultural constructions of race while offering bold new visions of community, identity, and selfhood.

Featuring superb illustrations of sculptural works in a broad range of media, The Shape of Power contributes new scholarship to the understudied field of American sculpture, which hasn't been the subject of a major publication survey in more than fifty years.

Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

Exhibition Schedule
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
November 8, 2024-September 14, 2025

Author Biography

Karen Lemmey is the Lucy S. Rhame Curator of Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Tobias Wofford is associate professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University. Grace Yasumura is assistant curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Number of Pages: 292
Dimensions: 1.3 x 12.3 x 9.8 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
ISBN9780691261492
Author Karen Lemmey , Tobias Wofford , Grace Yasumura
PublisherPrinceton University Press
GenreArts and History
FormatHardcover
PublishedNovember 2024
LanguageENG- English
Pages292
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art History Nonfiction

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