Liberty
1 of 2
Object Label
In Liberty, Hank Willis Thomas renders a two-dimensional image as a three-dimensional sculpture. The original photograph appeared in Life Magazine in 1986 and featured a Harlem Globetrotter in front of the Statue of Liberty, spinning a basketball on his finger. Interested in popular culture, photographic history, and sports as a metaphor for individual and collective struggle, Thomas created a lifesize sculpture of the moment by casting the arm of retired NBA All-Star Juwan Howard.
Liberty is part of Thomas’s Punctum series, which draws inspiration from the French philosopher Roland Barthes’s idea of the punctum: that “element which rises from the [photographic] scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces.” Using this concept as his foundation, Thomas selects a specific area of an image and re-presents it as sculpture. Through cropping and isolation, he encourages us to contemplate framing itself: what is left in or out of a photograph, narrative, or account of a historical event, and why?
Caption
Hank Willis Thomas American, born 1976. Liberty, 2015. Fiberglass, chameleon auto paint finish, 35 x 10 x 10 in. (88.9 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist and Jack Shainman in honor of Arnold Lehman, 2015.57a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2015.57a-b_PS11.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Liberty
Date
2015
Medium
Fiberglass, chameleon auto paint finish
Classification
Dimensions
35 x 10 x 10 in. (88.9 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist and Jack Shainman in honor of Arnold Lehman
Accession Number
2015.57a-b
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at