DAVID MARCUS: LA museum’s desecration of Confederate statues is pure barbarism
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Before the iconoclastic chaos of 2020, when historic statues were toppled both legally and by riot, the debate over Confederate monuments was generally a respectful one, but today, as a new art exhibition in Los Angeles shows, the left has replaced respect with barbaric disrespect.
‘Monuments’ is a new exhibition at the Brick in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art and features removed Confederate statues on display; some are still covered in protesters’ graffiti, some are in historical context and in one case are completely mutilated.
In a glowing review, the New Yorker described ‘Monuments’ as “both an act of carnivalesque revenge and a recognition of the zombie-like persistence of the Confederacy.”
Let’s consider these ideas one by one, starting with revenge, and asking exactly whom it is revenge against.
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The statues have already been removed, the place in history of the men and women depicted in them has been erased, this mockery, this revenge is not directed at them, but at all those who believe that our historical monuments should be preserved, not destroyed.
A worker secures a statue of Confederate Marine officer Matthew Fontaine Maury to a truck on Monument Boulevard in Richmond, Va., Thursday, July 2, 2020. Maury was better known for his work in oceanography and other sciences before the Civil War. His statue is the second to be removed since a new state law went into effect July 1. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
One statue is titled ‘Confederate Women of Baltimore’, depicting two women holding a dying Confederate soldier; Originally an expression of the terrible losses in America’s deadliest war, it is now displayed alongside countless photographs of black mothers cradling their wounded children in modern urban settings.
The message is clear: Whatever pain the Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned the statue or the actual sculptor was trying to embody, they need to shut up about it.
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The most grotesque of the works is called “Unmanned Drone”. It was formerly the equestrian statue of General Thomas ‘Stonewell’ Jackson in Virginia, but artist Kara Walker used a plasma cutter to shatter the statue and transform it into a hideous monster.
Brick Director Hamza Walker said of the work, “It is an ideological insult, an aesthetic insult,” and I ask again, who is it an insult to? Is the aim to disturb people? If so why?
There is a strong element of reflection in all of this; Many of the same people celebrating ‘Monuments’ believe that President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom signifies a middle finger to the left, perhaps because that’s exactly what exhibits like ‘Monuments’ are actually to the right.
This art says, not only have we destroyed your statues, often without anyone having to vote for them, but now we will mock them, tear them apart and desecrate them, while all the high-minded art magazines call it striking and bold.
‘Monuments’ brings to mind the 1937 Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition, where works of modern art deemed insulting to German values were displayed for public humiliation, such as the degrading of statues in Los Angeles.
Viewers are intended to encounter a deeper hatred of the Confederacy and, more importantly, an almost inhuman tolerance for irreverent works of art once crafted by loving and talented hands.
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So yes, this art exhibition is definitely a carnival of revenge. What about the other part of the New Yorker statement, “The zombie-like persistence of the Confederacy?”
Let me note that almost the only person obsessed with the Confederacy in 2025 is a progressive.
There is no neo-confederate movement to be found, no one is trying to secede from or defend slavery; Instead, it is the left that constantly points to the stars and bars as if it has anything to do with today’s conservative movement.
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The initial removal of statues was an act of curse memoriae or destruction of memory, a practice that dates back to ancient Egypt, but ‘Monuments’ are much, much worse, mean-spirited and imply ritual humiliation.
The good news is that there are two sides to this fight; Because the Trump administration has already restored two Confederate statues in Washington, D.C., it’s a fight worth having between those who want to build and those who want to tear down, those who want to celebrate our history and those who want to desecrate it.
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Fortunately, all but the murdered Stonewall Jackson statue will return to storage after this exhibition, no longer the butt of a malicious prank, but one day, if the good people stay loyal and work hard, we may be able to return them to their original podiums.
The struggle for the past is never about the past; It’s about today and the future, and it’s a fight we can’t afford to lose.
