Event name
Art Thursday: We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
When
Thu 09 / 01 / 2022
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Who can attend
Open to all
Limited capacity: Registration Closed
Price
FREE
We Are Made of Stories is a fascinating exhibit currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We are fortunate to be able to bring this exhibit into your homes via Zoom courtesy of the Education Department of SAAM.
Artists without formal training, who learned from family, community, and personal journeys, have long been a presence in American art. But it was not until the 1980s, with the help of trailblazing advocates, that the collective force of their creative vision and presence irrevocably turned the tide in the mainstream art world. Through drawings, paintings, and sculptures that span the narrative to the abstract, the artworks in We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection convey the humanistic power of art and allow us to see the world through the lens of another.
We Are Made of Stories traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition showcases forty-three artists whose work was admired and collected by Margaret Z. Robson (1932–2014). Margaret valued their artworks and personal stories, believing both offered a truer, more complete portrait of our nation's makers and redefined who could be an artist in America.