The Shape of Power - by Karen Lemmey & Tobias Wofford & Grace Yasumura (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This catalogue accompanies an exhibition of the same name that will open at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in November 2024. Through offerings from ten scholars focusing on a selection of some eighty sculptures made between 1793 and 2023 in a wide range of media, The Shape of Power is a portal into nuanced and complex ideas about the enduring power of sculpture as a potent tool in the making and unmaking of race in the United States: --Provided by the publisher.

Book Synopsis

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

Review Quotes

"[The Shape of Power] exemplifies the country's pride in its ability to look at itself critically, to acknowledge the past while forging new paradigms capable of inspiring future generations."---Lisa N. Peters, ARLIS/NA Reviews

"Finalist for the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, Art Libraries Society of America"

"Excellent [and] forceful. . . . A must read. . . . [The Shape of Power is] a poignant companion work to an important and significant exhibition and an essential contextual experience for librarians, students, artists, museum educators, historians, and the general public."-- "Library Journal Starred Review"

"A stimulating study of the intersection between race and art."-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

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.