First View of Kara Walker "Unmanned Drone"
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| Kara Walker, Unmanned Drone, 2025. Photo: Ruben Diaz 2025/Courtesy of The Brick |
The Brick has released images of Kara Walker's Unmanned Drone, made from the Charlottesville, Virginia, statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson that was a backdrop to a 2017 white supremacist rally. The 4.5-ton bronze sculpture will be a centerpiece of "MONUMENTS," opening at the The Brick and MOCA's Geffen Contemporary on Oct. 23.
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| Kara Walker, Unmanned Drone, 2025. Photo: Ruben Diaz 2025/Courtesy of The Brick |
Comments
Anyone familiar with Lost Cause mythology will instantly read this as a mere disambiguation of a Confederate idol. I naively imagined bronzes melted down to affirm something, anything, good. Not this, what, adulation to war?
> Brick and MOCA's
> Geffen Contemporary
For those locations, this type of exhibit is fine. But all the contemporary art at LACMA, Huntington and Hammer (and other than artworks assembled by the founder himself, really a contemporary museum), and, of course, the Broad or Marciano's semi-museum on Wilshire becomes a bit too much. Too much same 'ol, same 'ol. Much less commercial galleries in LA like a Hauser and Wirth.
Meanwhile, I notice the Getty will soon have a special exhibit titled "How to Be a Guerrilla Girl."
As for a museum like the Metropolitan, it also has shows affected by the politics (or mindset) of "hip, trendy, relevant." But because the Met's overall history (and budget, and collection) is so well-established, the filler of contemporary doesn't stand out as much as it does in LA.
I'm sure there will be "hip, trendy" in the Lucas Museum too,. But it hopefully won't be so much that it becomes another part of the big blur of LA's museums.
A missed opportunity.