Drawn to objects that bind aesthetic pleasure to larger questions about privacy, possession and refusal, writers across centuries have returned again and again to the strange psycho-spiritual force of the masterpiece. The Vandals, a group exhibition at Gladstone’s 24th Street location, takes its theme from two short stories—Edith Wharton’s The House of the Dead Hand (1904) and Honoré de Balzac’s The Unknown Masterpiece (1831)—both of which revolve around artworks hidden from public view and the destabilizing consequences that accompany their revelation.

In both Wharton and Balzac, the concealed artwork acquires an almost occult charge. Artists and collectors alike become custodians of objects whose exposure threatens to destroy the delicate conditions that sustain their power. Blurring the boundaries between desire and love, the power of art and the impulse to possess and see it, these texts propose that to fully apprehend art may itself constitute a form of vandalism. Looking becomes inseparable from domination; admiration slips toward desecration; ultimately an image can harm or be harmed through being seen. Great works appear less as stable objects than as volatile psychic containers, things that perhaps require protection not only from the world, but from our need to consume them.

Organized by Alissa Bennett and Julian Ehrlich

Participating artists: Weegee, Huguette Clark, Joseph Cornell, George Platt Lynes, Robert H. Colescott, Vivian Maier, Alex Katz, Lee Friedlander, David Hammons, Pope.L, Celia Paul, Mark Leckey, Kai Althoff, Rachel Harrison, Graham Little, Aaron Gilbert, Christopher Culver, Marcus Leotaud, Matt Hilvers, Sang Woo Kim, Joseph Yaeger, Melle Van Herwaarden, Brook Hsu, Somaya Critchlow, Adam Alessi, Jake Grewal, Arisa Yoshioka, Marc Prats-Quintana, Tamo Jugeli, Taína Cruz, Ella Rose Flood