Monuments - by Hannah Burstein & Hamza Walker (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Scholars and contemporary artists reckon with decommissioned monuments, examining fraught narratives of the legacy of the Civil War and slavery as well as national identity in the United States

Published with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and The Brick.

This volume features a selection of decommissioned monuments, many of them Confederate, presented alongside contemporary artworks that address American history and national identity. MONUMENTS, which accompanies the eponymous exhibition, marks the last several years of monument removals as a historic moment and aims to build a better understanding of our shared history and ideals, while holding the monuments accountable to the present. Featuring contributions by the exhibition curators, Bennett Simpson, Hamza Walker and Kara Walker, as well as scholars, poets and artists, the publication attends to the social, political, historical and art historical context of these monuments as well as the legacies of the people and events they commemorate. It includes additional essays by Sven Beckert, Emily Bingham, Thomas J. Brown, Karen Cox, Hilary N. Green, Grace Elizabeth Hale, Michael Lobel, Dani R. Merriman, Charmaine A. Nelson, Michael Ralph, Kirk Savage, Cherise Smith, Tsione Wolde-Michael and Dell Upton, and contributions by Derrick Austin, Mark Thomas Gibson, David Hartt, Ashley M. Jones, Melissa Lyttle and Kiki Petrosino.
Artists include: Bethany Collins, Karon Davis, Abigail DeVille, Stan Douglas, Leonardo Drew, Torkwase Dyson, Kevin Jerome Everson, Nona Faustine, Jon Henry, Kahlil Robert Irving, Monument Lab, Walter Price, Martin Puryear, Andres Serrano, Cauleen Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Davone Tines, Kara Walker.

Review Quotes

MONUMENTS' is a searing, essential show.--Carolina A. Miranda "The New York Review of Books"

MONUMENTS--co-organized and co-presented by the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick--presents a critical and at times effective response by artists of color to the still very present scourge of sculptural promotion of white supremacy in the United States.--William Corwin "The Brooklyn Rail"

[This exhibition] expertly captures America's shifting political terrain and the role of art within it.--Claudia Ross "Hyperallergic"

[A] long-awaited show.--Brian Boucher "Artnet"

A new show featuring decommissioned statues dispels myths of American history at a moment when President Trump is insisting on them.--J Wortham "The New York Times Magazine"

Curated by Hamza Walker, Bennett Simpson, and Kara Walker, the show was conceived eight years ago, as statues were beginning to come down. But it feels even timelier today, amid a moment of 'anti-woke' resentment that echoes the Lost Cause....--Julian Lucas "The New Yorker"

The year's most audacious and contentious new show.--Jason Farago "The New York Times"

[A] landmark exhibition.--Siddhartha Mitter "The New York Times"