We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
By (Author) Leslie Umberger
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
10th January 2023
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
709.730904
Physical Properties
Paperback
288
Width 254mm, Height 279mm
Description
A richly illustrated history of self-taught artists and how they changed American art
Artists without formal training, who learned from family, community, and personal journeys, have long been a presence in American art. But it wasnt until the 1980s, with the help of trailblazing advocates, that the collective force of their creative vision and bold self-definition permanently changed the mainstream art world. In We Are Made of Stories, Leslie Umberger traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, they redefined who could be rightfully seen as an artist and revealed a much more diverse community of American makers.
Lavishly illustrated throughout, We Are Made of Stories features more than one hundred drawings, paintings, and sculptures, ranging from the narrative to the abstract, by forty-three artistsincluding James Castle, Thornton Dial, William Edmondson, Howard Finster, Bessie Harvey, Dan Miller, Sister Gertrude Morgan, the Philadelphia Wireman, Nellie Mae Rowe, Judith Scott, and Bill Traylor. The book centralizes the personal stories behind the art, and explores enduring themes, including self-definition, cultural heritage, struggle and joy, and inequity and achievement. At the same time, it offers a sweeping history of self-taught artists, the critical debates surrounding their art, and how museums have gradually diversified their collections across lines of race, gender, class, and ability.
Recasting American art history to embrace artists who have been excluded for too long, We Are Made of Stories vividly captures the power of art to show us the world through the eyes of another.
Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Exhibition Schedule
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
July 1, 2022March 26, 2023
Reviews
"Finalist for the PROSE Award in Art Exhibitions, Association of American Publishers"
Author Bio
Leslie Umberger is curator of folk and self-taught art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She is the author of Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor (Princeton).
