How Things Change: Defacing George Floyd Statue a Crime, Removing Teddy Roosevelt Statue Progress Commentary Back in the olden days, the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin noted that “Not all things are possible at all times.” Wölfflin was talking about historical constraints in the realm of artistic style. Mondrian’s abstractions, for example, wouldn’t have been possible in the age of Rubens. The point can be generalized. Last summer, it was open season on statues and other monuments. In June 2020, 1,000 people gathered at Byrd Park in Richmond, Virginia, “to stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples.” That day, the object of their wrath was an eight-foot statue of Christopher Columbus, which they toppled and dragged to a nearby lake for disposal.