Wendy Bellion is Professor and Sewell C. Biggs Chair of American Art History at the University of Delaware. She is the author of the award-winning Citizen Spectator: Art, Illusion, and Visual Perception in Early National America.
“A triumphant endorsement of the power of objects to act upon the
human imagination.”—Caroline Culp Panorama
“A timely study, given recent interest in removing Confederate
statuary, this interdisciplinary volume will resonate with readers
interested in history as well as those studying public monuments
and memory. Highly recommended.”—J. Decker Choice
“Bellion investigates many other pockets of American culture in her
exploration of iconoclasm and its fractured meanings. The extent of
her research is breathtaking, and her agile wit and engaging style
keep the reader striding through the text. Somehow her command of
theoretical work from a variety of disciplines manages to burnish
rather than deaden the text. Eleven color plates and fifty-one
black and white illustrations also give the reader plenty of visual
material to ponder.”—Benjamin L. Carp The Gotham Center for New
York City History
“Vivid and visceral, Iconoclasm in New York weaves a brilliant
tapestry of meanings from a moment of ritual violence in 1776 New
York. Untangling the paradox of the always-toppling,
never-quite-vanquished King George III, Wendy Bellion plumbs a
central mystery of American culture. To see the destructive
creation of the United States through Bellion’s keen eyes is to
witness the American Revolution transformed.”—Jane Kamensky, author
of A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley
“Wendy Bellion has one of the most powerful interpretive voices
helping us see what the early United States imagined of itself and
for itself. In her new book on the power of destructive acts, she
looks closely at the art of destruction, showing us how King George
III fell and rose (along with other emblems of monarchy and Great
Britain) in a pattern that continues to this day. I’m looking
forward to regularly reading, teaching, and thinking through
Iconoclasm in New York.”—Karin Wulf, author of Not All Wives: Women
of Colonial Philadelphia
“Bellion’s provocative and timely study weaves together the
geographic, environmental, political, and sensory landscapes of New
York City to create a highly original contribution to scholarship
on the American Revolution and its memorialization.”—Matthew
Dziennik The William and Mary Quarterly
“Meticulously researched and vividly written, Iconoclasm in New
York provides a model for the field, demonstrating that the
practice of art history can be at once expansive in scope and
highly specific in its claims.”—Catherine Roach Nineteenth-Century
Art Worldwide
“Iconoclasm in New York will be indispensable to interdisciplinary
scholarship on the episode and illuminating to work on American
iconoclasm and commemoration. The abundant archival research is
inestimable; the book is brimming with exciting discoveries and new
features of what once seemed a familiar story. This deep history
solidifies the pivotal role of iconoclasm in a myth of American
origins.”—Michelle Sizemore Early American Literature
“Bellion’s book helps me to contextualize and understand at least
two forms of iconoclasm that we are experiencing today, both
nationally and on a global scale: one that rejects monuments to
white supremacy and imperialism and another that defends those
monuments and would see anything that threatens them toppled in
their stead.”—Kirsten Pai Buick Winterthur Portfolio
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