Exhibitions: Liberty: Photographs by Ruffin Cooper

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  June 26, 1986: BROOKLYN, N.Y.--The Brooklyn Museum will celebrate the Statue of Liberty centennial with the exhibition Liberty: Photographs by Ruffin Cooper on view in the Grand Lobby from June 26 to September 8, 1986.
  
  The centerpiece of the exhibition will be a pair of composite transparencies descending from the lobby ceiling in ten-foot sections to form two images, one 20 by 32 feet and the other 20 by 20 feet. One of the images looks down on “The Lady in the Harbor” from the vantage point of a helicopter, showing the head of Liberty captured in the web of scaffolding erected during the statue’s restoration. The other image is of the statue in silhouette against the fiery sky of a setting sun, the figure again enmeshed in the scaffolding. As one approaches the two transparencies, they will seem to dissolve into splashes of color, revealing behind them, on the Lobby’s rear wall, ten large photographs.
  
  Measuring 34 by 48 inches apiece, these photographs are a loving exploration of the statue from the base of its pedestal to the tip of its torch. They demonstrate all the wit and drama of Cooper’s best work, appropriating a familiar image with a ferocious energy that makes us look on it afresh.
  
  Ruffin Cooper, a San Francisco photographer who has exhibited widely in the U.S. and Europe, has often used photography to look at well-known American icons from a new perspective, isolating important details and enlarging them to monumental scale. “When we speak of American icons,” he says, “the Statue of Liberty is the grandest and most beloved of them all. I first photographed her in detail in 1979 at very close range, having no idea that she was soon to become the focus of a great restoration campaign. At the time I only thought Liberty was one of the most incredible sculptures I had ever seen.”
  
  The exhibition is made possible, in part, by a gift from Lynn and Larry Schafran of New York City. The funding for transparencies, film processing, hardware, handling, and packing was provided by Frank Bonfiglio of Imperial Color Labs, Inc., San Francisco.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1986, 066. View Original

Press Coverage of this Exhibition

• A CALENDAR OF LIBERTY EVENTSMay 18, 1986 By William R. Greer; William R. Greer is a reporter on the Style staff of The New York Times."There's more to the centennial of the Statue of Liberty than the celebrations over the July Fourth weekend. Miss Liberty also is being saluted in New York's museums, libraries, art galleries and public places with exhibitions that range from the academic to the artistic, from the poignant to the whimsical. The Statue as Ephemera The image of the..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• GOING OUT GUIDEMay 31, 1986 By C. Gerald Fraser"THUNDERING HOOFBEATS, ETC. - Lo and behold! Radio is fit for a museum. At least the Museum of Broadcasting (752-4690), at 1 East 53d Street, thinks so. Today it is presenting a special program from 10:30 A.M. to noon to introduce radio to children, mostly those from 7 to 11 years of age. Of course, the presentation will note the museum's..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• ART SHOWS CELEBRATE OUR FAVORITE STATUE IN HER MANY GUISESJune 27, 1986 By JOHN RUSSELL, VIVIEN RAYNOR and ANDY GRUNDBERG"AS everyone knows by now, the centennial of our favorite statue has given rise to exhibitions all over New York City. Three critics were assigned to them, and there were moments when it seemed as if 30 would be none too many. What follows is, therefore, a threefold choice, not an exhaustive listing. The exhibitions in question cover painting,..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• LIBERTY WEEKEND; SAMPLING OF EXHIBITSJune 29, 1986 "Following is a selection of exhibits being held in conjunction with the Statue of Liberty Centennial celebration. American Museum of Immigration, Statue of Liberty National Monument, Liberty Island. The first permanent exhibit on the history and symbolism of the statue. Includes the original torch and flame, replaced during restoration; full-scale..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• GOING OUT GUIDEJuly 5, 1986 By Richard F. Shepard"LOOKING BACK Should the lady in the harbor feel that too much is being made of age on the occasion of her 100th birthday, she might find solace as she looks eastward from her high perch toward Brooklyn, where the Brooklyn Museum houses statues and other relics of an antiquity that makes a century appear as a fleeting fragment of time. The museum,..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• LOWER MANHATTAN GETS A MURAL FROM FRANCEJuly 14, 1986 By DEIRDRE CARMODY"Three stark slashes across a downtown wall constitute the latest gift from the Republic of France to the people of New York. The towering mural on the outside of a city-owned building at 22 Reade Street in lower Manhattan was painted by Francois Morellet, a French geometric abstractionist, as part of a cultural exchange between the French Embassy..." (New York Times Fee Required)
• WEEKENDER GUIDEJuly 18, 1986 By Lisa W. Foderaro"Friday CYPRIOT CEREMONIES The re-enactment of a traditional Cypriot wedding is an event worth witnessing. Among other things, the ceremony includes the presenting of the bride's trousseau, rolling a boy in the couple's mattress to insure that their first child is a son, watching the groom shave and the bride primp before the vows, and guests..."