Artist Recreates Iconic American Paintings To Destroy Them

author: lexie
date: 2014-04-15
title: Artist Recreates Iconic American Paintings To Destroy Them
status: published
description: >
What can be said for an artist that creates masterpieces simply to destroy them? The work of Valerie Hegarty is often misunderstood as a mockery of her artistic predecessors, but in reality, each piece represents a complex transformation.
featured: 6
categories:
- Art
tags:
- art
- design
- destruction
- painting

What can be said for an artist that creates masterpieces simply to destroy them?

The work of Valerie Hegarty is often misunderstood as a mockery of her artistic predecessors, but in reality, each piece represents a complex transformation.

Spending months first recreating the iconic works of American artists, Hegarty modifies each piece to showcase destruction, evolution, and then regeneration.

Ravaged by floods, attacked by birds, or set on fire, each piece is unique in its deterioration. Twisted, cracked, burned, rotted, battered, tattered, words detailing demolition are in fact words of creation.

It would be easy to rationalize her works as simple acts of destruction, but her motives are much more complex. Her works endure a metamorphic change by constantly evolving to become something new entirely.

Often experimenting with literal interpretations, her landscape paintings sprout tree limbs, allowing the painting to become a landscape in itself.

Hegarty acknowledges the improbability of the destruction of great works of art, so each piece must be somewhat convincing. Most often, she doesn’t literally depict the means in which the piece was destroyed. Instead, she showcases what was left behind.

Photography and information courtesy of (C) Valerie Hegarty