Unraveling the Questions

“WE ARE MADE of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection”, now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, presents more than 100 artworks by 43 artists that follow the “collecting journey of Margaret Z. Robson.” Under the direction of Leslie Umberger, the Smithsonian’s curator of folk and self-taught art, the exhibition closely examines an area of American—and world—art that is highly charged, both historically and politically. An in-depth, full-color catalogue, produced by the Smithsonian in conjunction with Princeton University Press, accompanies the exhibition. Robson’s son, Douglas, gifted the collection to the Smithsonian, contributed a lively and important essay