1st Edition

Iconoclasm and the Museum

By Stacy Boldrick Copyright 2021
212 Pages 60 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

212 Pages 60 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

212 Pages 60 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Iconoclasm and the Museum addresses the museum’s historic tendency to be silent about destruction through an exploration of institutional attitudes to iconoclasm, or image breaking, and the concept’s place in public display. Presenting a selection of focused case studies, Boldrick examines long-standing desires to deface, dismantle, obscure or destroy works of art and historic artefacts,... Read more

List of Figures

Preface

Introduction Clean Cuts

Chapter 1 Using and Abusing Images and Objects: After The Destruction of Art

Chapter 2 Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: Iconoclasm and Institutional Integrity

Chapter 3 Iconoclasm’s Geographies: Fallen Monuments and Broken Bodies

Chapter 4 Dead Images: Losing Art

Chapter 5 Defaced: Breaking and Remaking Art Now

Conclusion Hidden Histories

Index

Biography

Stacy Boldrick is Lecturer and Programme Director for the MA in Art Museum and Gallery Studies in the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.

"Whether we respond in horror or relief at the iconoclastic act, the museum remains the key institutional mediator of our horror or delight; Stacy Boldrick’s excellent book lucidly illuminates the intimate relation of the apparently silent, contained museum and the wild energies that surround and feed it." - James Simpson, Harvard University, USA

"This is a staggeringly timely book tackling issues that are vitally important for our re-imagining of shared spaces within and well beyond museums." - Richard Clay, University of Newcastle, UK

"This is a well researched and relevant study of a subject that rarely gets adequate attention. Boldrick is an authoritative guide to the equivocal status of images in society and in the process she reveals much about iconoclasm and museums, as well as human nature. As long as there are image makers, it seems there will always be image breakers. As Boldrick syas, "Iconoclams never ends". - Stephen Feeke, Curator