The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution

by Dario Gamboni

In January 2006, a man tried to break Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain sculpture with a small hammer. The sculpted foot of Michelangelo’s David was damaged in 1991 by a purportedly mentally ill artist. Each such incident confronts us with the unsettling dynamic between destruction and art. In this book, renowned art historian Dario Gamboni is the first to tackle this weighty issue in depth.

Starting with the sweeping obliteration of architecture and art under the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, Gamboni investigates other instances of destruction around the globe, uncovering a surprisingly widespread phenomenon. As he demonstrates through analyses of nineteenth- and twentieth-century incidents in the United States and Europe, a complex relationship exists between the evolution of modern art and a long history of iconoclasm. Gamboni probes the concept of artists’ rights, the power of political protest, and the ways in which iconoclasm offers a unique interpretation of society’s relationship to art and material culture. Compelling, thought-provoking, and featuring more than one hundred and fifty illustrations, The Destruction of Art forces us to rethink the ways in which we interact with art and its power to shock or subdue.

Genres: Art, History, Art History

448 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ensayo sobre la destrucción artística centrado especialmente en las décadas posteriores a la Guerra Fría. Destaca entre todos el capítulo dedicado a la conceptualización y terminología y el capítulo dedicado a la desintegración de la URSS y el desmoche de monumentos y lugares de memoria soviética. El autor es un especialista en arte contemporáneo y los capítulos dedicados a la destrucción del arte moderno también son reseñables. En definitiva, un muy buen libro sobre un tema que, de repente, ha vuelto a la actualidad.

[Matthew Osborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slavoj Žižek: Most of us think that we now live in totally atheist, post-ideological times, and cynically view the big 20th century movements like communism and fascism as totally failed and outdated. But it's exactly when we think we exist outside ideology that we are actually in it. It's inherent in the way that we construct our reality and stage our desires. And this is also reflected in cinema. In a consumerist capitalist society, you think you are free by being able to enjoy life and buy things like a Starbucks frappuccino, when actually, you are following an obscene and deep command to ”ENJOY.”

What's that got to do with The Destruction of Art? It's about ideology. What do we value? What offends us, and why does it make us feel that way?

I used to drive hundreds of miles to see art that I knew would piss me off. I was intrigued by my awareness that materials handing on a wall, or piled on the floor, would arouse such strong feelings in me - anger, disgust, desire to destroy. In the years since then, I much more rarely feel pissed off by art - now I think of it as art that challenges me.

But I was interested in how we are moved by art. When I see people behaving badly, I think "That's my species." I wanted to know more about why people destroy art. Clearly, I'm not the only person who could be pissed off by colors and shapes. How does that work?

This book helped me understand how that works, and elucidated many reasons behind the destruction of art. It helped me understand myself and my species. It helped me appreciate art more, and also understand it's destruction more.

The book is quite relevant today in the midst of the worldwide outrage over The Islamic State destroying ancient monuments and work art, and the simultaneous demand by many of those same people that art related to the Confederate States of America ought to be destroyed. It's not the destruction of art in itself that they object to - it's the choice of which art is to be destroyed that they demand.