Art under Attack
When I visited Art Under Attack at Tate Britain, quite natural I assume that violence and destruction focused as a context in the arts,but was I wrong?
Wikipedia “Iconoclasm[1] is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture’s own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives.
Exhibition grouped in theme arrangement of “religion”,”politics” and “aestetics”.First four rooms dedicated traditional and historical approach to the presentation of fragments of sculptures and ornaments which they once belong to the churches before they were destroyed during the Reformation.16th and 17th centuries believed the Bible to be unmediated Word of God and used the Bible as a guidance.Reformers beleived paintings,stained glass,music and religious ceremony were seen as visual and sensuous distraction from the word of God and removing images also removed the temptations and dangers they posed..Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image…Visual imagery stripped from churches and was replaced with words from Bible.
Statue of the Dead Christ,c.1500-20
Moving into from religion to politics theme, documented how over the centuries public statues of disagreement figures of authority have been attacked,defaced,abused and blown up.One of the best example is Nelson’s Pillar which was heavily damaged by 1960’s bombing.Because of not knowing much about British history exhibition is quite overwhelming sense of a historical,factual presentation.
Another room in theme of politics was simply entitled ” Suffragettes “.In 1913-14 the campaign to win women the vote became more aggressive and turned from window smashing to attacked in order to effect political change.This militant suffragettes carried out these acts of iconoclasm the name of the Women’s Social and Political Union.Documentation of surveillance photograph of known militant suffragetes displayed in exhibition.
Last section of the exhibition was “aesthetics” and three sub-section in the part of the exhibition. Starts with attack on Art,many who damage artworks in public collection declare themselves unhappy with the artwork or with the ideas it presents.Attacks politically motivated and iconoclast was responding to the aesthetics or appearance of the artwork.Allan Jones’ full scale,openly-sexualised mannequin used as a seat ‘ Chair ‘ which was I can’t understand why exhibited in this exhibition..
Allan-Jones, Chair,1969
Next section Destruction in Art, socially and politically engaged public art of Metzger initiated Destruction In Art Symposium ( DIAS) in 1966 , three-day long symposium and a month of events by a range of artists attended.Last section was Art Transform which is mostly focused on how human body remain a consistent target for the iconoclast.Three portraits from Chapman Brothers’ One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved and Oliver Cromwell hung upside down by Robert Walker also one of the not to be missed in this section.
Chapman Brother’s One Day You Will Be No Longer Loved
Whoever is visiting the Art under Attack if have a little knowledge of British history then you will appreciate this exhibition because of the historical documents,photographs,presentation of fragments,sculptures and adornments quite overwhelming and confusing.
- ^ Literally, “image-breaking”, from Ancient Greek: εἰκών and κλάω. Iconoclasm may be also considered as a back-formation from iconoclast (from Greek εἰκοκλάστης). ( Wikipedia,19 December 13 )
- All the images downloaded from exhibition guide of Art Under Attack and more information about the exhibition please follow the link
- http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/art-under-attack-histories-british-iconoclasm
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