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Damage Control : Art and Destruction Since 1950

Mudam Collection

Since the middle of the 20th century, destruction has played a wide range of roles in contemporary art: as rebellion or protest, as spectacle and release, or as an essential component of re-creation and restoration. Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 offers an overview, if by no means an exhaustive study, of this central element in contemporary culture. Featuring approximately 90 works by more than 40 international artists, and including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, film, video, installation and performance, the exhibition presents many of the myriad ways in which artists have considered and invoked destruction in their process.

Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 is organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC in association with Mudam Luxembourg and Universalmuseum Joanneum/Kunsthaus Graz.

The international tour of Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 received major funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, and is also made possible through generous support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Japan Foundation.

Credits

Curators:
  • Kerry Brougher
    (Director, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)

    Russell Ferguson
    (Professor, ULCA Department of Art, Los Angeles)

Artists:
  • Ai Weiwei
    Roy Arden
    John Baldessari
    Walead Beshty
    Monica Bonvicini
    Mircea Cantor
    Vija Celmins
    Jake and Dinos Chapman
    Bruce Conner
    Luc Delahaye
    Thomas Demand
    Sam Durant
    Harold Edgerton
    Dara Friedman
    Ori Gersht
    Jack Goldstein
    Felix Gonzalez-Torres & Christopher Wool
    Douglas Gordon
    Mona Hatoum
    Larry Johnson
    Yves Klein
    Michael Landy
    Christian Marclay
    Gordon Matta-Clark
    Steve McQueen
    Gustav Metzger
    Raphael Montañez Ortiz
    Juan Muñoz
    Laurel Nakadate
    Yoshitomo Nara
    Arnold Odermatt
    Yoko Ono
    Pipilotti Rist
    Thomas Ruff
    Ed Ruscha
    Joe Sola
    Jean Tinguely
    Shōmei Tōmatsu
    Jeff Wall
    Andy Warhol

Under the Patronage of the Embassy of the United States in Luxembourg