An Introduction

The Confederate monuments in front of courthouses and capitol buildings are physical manifestations of the Lost Cause myth. Formed in the wake of the Civil War, the Lost Cause contends that the South’s secession from the Union and the ensuing bloodshed was not about slavery but rather, was courageously fought to defend states’ rights from a tyrannical federal government in spite of the overwhelming odds against them. Predicated on the fallacy of white supremacy and inferiority of African Americans, this view of the antebellum South, Civil War and Reconstruction calcified in the decades following the war and justified Jim Crow era policies which maintained that Black people were unfit to govern or vote. 

However, the Lost Cause is anything but an historical phenomenon. These falsehoods were passed down from generation to generation of white Americans through an intentional and wildly successful propaganda campaign carried out by mothers, educators, legislators, and heritage groups. Despite the words of Confederate leaders themselves and decades of historical scholarship refuting all major claims of the Lost Cause, it continues to maintain a tight grip on many Americans’ understanding of the past. The impact of chattel slavery and Black disenfranchisement on contemporary society has resulted in a chasm of racial disparity between white and Black Americans in nearly every facet of life, including but not limited to housing, health care, economic opportunity, life expectancy, political representation, and education. Without being able to properly identify and address the roots of these disparities, they will continue to grow. 

Following the actions of white supremacists in Charleston in 2015 and in Charlottesville in 2017 as well as Bree Newsome’s defiant climb to the top of a flagpole at the South Carolina Statehouse to remove the Confederate battle flag, dozens of monuments were removed and schools and streets were renamed across the South. By 2018, the debate sparked by the removal of these Confederate symbols led to the conception of MONUMENTS, a co-organization between The Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA).

The removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces across the United States is one of the most significant aesthetic, cultural, and political developments of the past decade, the result of mass protest as well as long-changing attitudes about history, race, and national identity. Upwards of 200 of those monuments have been decommissioned since 2015; yet over 700 still stand, and debates about the objects’ historical meaning and current status remain fierce.

MONUMENTS marks this ten-year period of contestation with an unprecedented pairing of decommissioned historical monuments and powerful works by nineteen artists that reflect on them. A unique collaboration between two Los Angeles art organizations, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and The Brick, the exhibition responds to fundamental and ongoing histories of the post-Civil War United States. Crucially, MONUMENTS turns to artists and artworks to deepen our understanding of the profound transformations of this moment.

Borrowed from municipal, institutional, and private lenders in Baltimore, Maryland; Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Montgomery, Alabama, the monuments included here were all decommissioned over the past decade. Encountering the statues in a museum setting, bearing traces of protest and installed among painting, film and video, sculpture, and photography—including works produced on the occasion of the exhibition—provides a significant shift in context for the objects, one that prompts us to ask which histories we commemorate and ultimately who, as a nation, we wish to be.

MONUMENTS is presented in two locations. The majority of the exhibition is featured at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, while a newly commissioned work by Kara Walker is on view at The Brick.

MONUMENTS is co-organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and The Brick. MONUMENTS is co-curated by Hamza Walker, Director, The Brick; artist Kara Walker; and Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator, MOCA; with Hannah Burstein, Curatorial Associate, The Brick; and Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator, MOCA.