We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection

Leslie Umberger's book "We Are Made of Stories" explores the rise of self-taught artists in the 20th century, highlighting their contributions to American art and challenging the mainstream art world's exclusion of artists without formal training. The book features over one hundred drawings, paintings, and sculptures by forty-three artists and explores themes such as self-definition, cultural heritage, struggle and joy, and inequity and achievement.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 04 October 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Artists who have not received formal training have long been a presence in American art, learning from family, community, and personal journeys. However, it was not until the 1980s that their collective creative vision and bold self-definition permanently changed the mainstream art world. In her book, We Are Made of Stories, Leslie Umberger traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how 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 by forty-three artists, including 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, exploring enduring themes such as 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, the exhibition schedule for the book includes a series of events and exhibitions at the museum throughout the year.

Weight: 1396g
Dimension: 236 x 273 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691240428