October 24, 2013 to February 9, 2014
Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 is the first in-depth exploration of the theme of destruction in international contemporary visual culture. In all areas of art production since the mid-twentieth century, the notion of destruction has played an important role, whether as spectacle, as catharsis, as a reaction to world-weariness, as a means of depersonalizing emotional or cultural angst, as a form of rebellion against institutions, or as an essential component of re-creation. This ground-breaking exhibition includes works by a diverse range of international artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation, and performance. It begins in the aftermath of World War II, under the looming fear of total annihilation in the atomic age, and explores the continuing use that artists have made of destruction as part of the creative process—sometimes sinister, sometimes playful, often iconoclastic, and always challenging. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue containing essays by the exhibition curators as well as scholars from a variety of disciplines in order to investigate this rich and complex subject from a range of perspectives, including art historical, historical, cultural, and psychological points of view.
