"Sleeve" from the Statue of Liberty Series. Original photograph, signed.
New York: 1979. Original large format Type C color print on Kodak paper. One of 100 signed and numbered impressions. 48 x 34 inches. 122 x 86.2 cm. Printed by Frank
Bonfiglio of Imperial Color Labs, Inc., San Francisco....
Ruffin Cooper (1942-1992) was a conceptual artist and photographer who came of age in the wildly exciting and tumultuous 1960s. Some unique experiences he had during his life included going to Woodstock in 1969 and living for a time at a New Mexico commune. Later he established himself as an artist in
San Francisco, crossing paths with such cultural icons as Dennis Hopper, Allen Ginsburg and Andy Warhol.
Ruffin Cooper achieved success both as an internationally recognized artist and highly accomplished commercial photographer. He often used photography to look at well-known American icons from a new perspective, isolating important details
and enlarging them to monumental scale. Cooper was best known for his monumental photographs of architectural subjects such as the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge. Cooper used to say about all of his works, "My intention is to provoke, seduce and invite interaction with them. I want viewers to become involved in a process of self-exploration through the visual stimulus of familiar references.".....
Press Release from the
Statue of Liberty centennial
exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum:
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. 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......
Solo Exhibitions 1985-1991:
1991 Vision Gallery, San Francisco....
1990 Comedie Francaise, Paris, France
Gallerie Bastille, Paris, France
Kauffman Gallery, Houston, Texas....
1989 Smith Anderson, Palo Alto, California....
1988 deSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, California. American Society of Civil Engineers, Wash., D. C.
G. Ray Hawkins, Los Angeles, California...
1987 Weston Gallery, Carmel, California
U. S. Information Service, American Consulate, Milan McAllen International Museum, McAllen, Texas American Society of Civil Engineers, Washington, D. C.....
1986 Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana L'Archivolto, Milan, ItalyBank of America, World Headquarters, San Francisco.....
1985 Galerie Bastille, Paris, France
Galleria Schubert, Milan, Italy. Item #16-3727
Price: $500.00