Art At Noon

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and America Sculpture, an Upcoming Exhibition at SAAM

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

12:00 - 1:00 PM (online)

This talk offers a preview of Smithsonian American Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition that considers the relationship between sculpture and societal constructions of race in the United States. The exhibition will present more than 80 sculptures made in a wide range of media between the mid-nineteenth century and the present. The Shape of Power asks, why is sculpture such a vital medium to communicate ideas of race? How does the medium give physical form to racist ideas, shaping how generations have learned to visualize and think about race? And how do sculptors use this medium to challenge the enduring social and cultural constructions of race and racialized power while offering new visions of community, identity, and selfhood? At its core, 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. 

Image: Ferdinand Pettrich, The Dying Tecumseh, modeled ca. 1837-1846, carved 1856, marble with painted copper alloy tomahawk, 36 5⁄8 x 77 5⁄8 x 53 3⁄4 in. (93.1 x 197.2 x 136.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Capitol, 1916.8.1 

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