The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

An excellent, forceful accompaniment to a 2024–25 Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition. High-quality color images of 82 objects, dating from the mid-19th century to the present, address troubling themes including tropes and stereotypes from the United States’ history of racism. The exhibition was created with purposeful community collaboration to “tell a more inclusive and accurate history of American sculpture…critically” and act as a catalyst for conversations around race, and sculpture was chosen with deliberate intention as the exhibition’s medium, to be an accessible portal for viewers. Ultimately striking is the up-close examination of an impressive assembly of sculptures from African American, Native, and Latinx artists, pointedly filling historical gaps and sharing new vision. The catalogue features essays by curators Lemmey and Grace Yasumura with art historian Tobias Wofford and other scholarly contributions. While the essays are largely academic in tone, they provide well-documented context, and the captions for the artworks are consistently engaging. The closing discussion is a must-read, with a rich list of recommended resources.