Art Vandalism

The Tate Museum in London currently has a show on vandalized art. People have been vandalizing art works for thousands of years, long before the Taliban blew up the huge statues of Buddha in Afghanistan.  

You may remember the woodcuts of George Washington’s troops pulling down the statue of George III in New York.  Actually, that may have been a good idea, since the lead in the statue was made into thousands of bullets for use by American revolutionaries.

The exhibit notes that most art vandalism results from one of three motives:  religion, politics, or aesthetics.  Religion is a common motive.  Only about 1/10 of medieval British art remains, the rest destroyed by Protestant fanatics.  The Taliban destruction of art works in Mali is only the latest example.  

Politics as a reason is also common.  Look at the destruction of Soviet-era art.  A painting of Henry James by John Singer Sargent was hacked by a suffragette with a meat cleaver.

The third main reason, according to the show, is aesthetics.  Some people simply can’t stand modern art, and they take what they think is appropriate action to preserve their aesthetic ideals.

My take on this is that if you don’t like an artwork, don’t buy it, don’t look at it, make fun of it, or picket it.  What I don’t think you should do is wreck it.  

Artworks belong to all of us.  The man who took a baseball bat to the Pieta was trying to destroy our common heritage and our common humanity.  To wreck an artwork of that importance is, to me, far worse than murder.  There are seven billion humans, but only one Michelangelo statue of David, or one Mona Lisa, or one Frank Lloyd’ Wright’s “Falling Waters.”  I have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who would destroy a work of art, no matter what the reason.