Shortly after the US election on 5 November, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington opens The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, a radical new perspective on the history of the discipline from 1792 to now. Ahead of its opening, Ben Luke speaks to Karen Lemmey, a curator of sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and co-curator of the exhibition.
Emanuel Martinez, Farm Workers' Altar (1967). Martinez created this altar to celebrate breaking a 25-day fast he had taken part in as a protest against unfair employment practices and unsuitable work conditions for migrant labourers
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the International Bank of Commerce in honor of Antonio R. Sanchez, Sr., 1992.95
In Warsaw, the Museum of Modern Art—a project 20 years in the making—has partially opened. We speak to its director, Joanna Mytkowska, about the long road to the unveiling and the upheavals in Polish politics along the way.
The exhibition spaces in the MSN Warsaw’s new building
Photo: Marta Ejsmont; courtesy of MSN Warsaw
And this episode’s Work of the Week is The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (early 1620s) by Jusepe de Ribera. It features in the first survey of the Spanish-born Baroque artist ever staged in France, at the Petit Palais in Paris. The museum’s director, Annick Lemoine, tells us more.
Jusepe de Ribera’s The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (early 1620s)
- The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., 8 November-14 September 2025
- The Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw is open now; its full programme will be unveiled in February 2025
- Ribera: Shadows and Light, Petit Palais, Paris, until 23 February 2025