The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

Curators Lemmey and Yasumura team up with Wofford, an art professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, to scrupulously trace the way race has been depicted in American sculpture. For example, the authors explore how white sculptors in the early 20th century reinforced narratives of power with public monuments of Confederate generals. At the same time, they also racially “othered” nonwhite peoples by using crude stereotypes in statues and everyday objects (see the “Indian Head” nickel, which circulated between 1913 and 1938 and ironically sets a “romanticized” profile of an Native person alongside the word “Liberty”). The book’s second half comprises essays from contributors including art historian Renée Ater, who unpacks the ways sculptors have highlighted the horrors of lynching. Elsewhere, curator Claudia E. Zapata investigates how Chicano artists have reclaimed the racist trope of the “sleeping Mexican” with works like Judith Baca’s Big Pancho, which covers such a figure with photos taken of the 2006 Day Without an Immigrant protest. Throughout, the contributors’ fine-grained analysis supports broader insights into how the medium—often seen as a record of literal historical truth—has given white sculptors undue leeway to render racial or ethnic “truths” while also inspiring nonwhite artists to push back. The result is a stimulating study of the intersection between race and art. Photos. (Nov.)