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.