Worthy Convos: What Does Lady Liberty Mean?

We started Worthy Convos to highlight people doing good and interesting things in our community. This weekend, the Carter’s new exhibition, The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol, opens this Saturday and examines the continued relevance and evolution of the image of the Statue of Liberty since it was unveiled in New York Harbor 140 years ago. Andrew Eschelbacher, the former Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Carter who headed the new exhibition, kindly took time out of his new job at the Portland Museum of Art to answer our questions.

Tanglewood Moms: The Statue of Liberty is such a part of the American psyche. What story do you want to tell with The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol?

Andrew Eschelbacher: For the entirety of the sculpture’s existence, it has stirred strong emotions about America and the ways in which liberty exists across the nation. Visual artists have been at the forefront of leading these conversations. In certain ways, the beauty of the show is in the multiplicity of meanings that artists suggest for the Statue of Liberty. The diversity of thought, in many ways, evokes the way we all bring our own ideas, experiences, and opinions to the fore when we think of the monument.

Currier & Ives., The Port of New York — Birds eye view from the Battery, looking south, ca. 1892,
chromolithograph, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.,
2001702361

TWM: There are so many representations of Lady Liberty. How did the curators decide which works to include in the exhibition?

AE: Indeed, there were so many to select from, and it was impossible to include everything. We tried to balance perspectives and media, offering a sampling of ways different artists have engaged the Statue of Liberty. This cannot be a comprehensive presentation, but the goal is to show the multiplicity of types of artistic responses the sculpture has engendered.

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), Liberty Enlightening the World (Statue of Liberty),
1894–1901, bronze with brown patina and black lacquer, Amon Carter Museum of American Art,
Fort Worth, Texas, Purchase with assistance from the Ruth Carter Stevenson Acquisition
Endowment, Pat and Shelby Adams, Anonymous, Susan and Stephen Butt, Sue and John Allen
Chalk, Julie and Glenn Davidson, Subie and Phil Green, Debra and Ken Hamlett, Karen Hixon,
Diane Jacobsen, Christina and Mark Johnson, Luther King Capital Management, Mary
Potishman Lard Trust, Dana and David Porter, Richard Russack, Clara and Stephen Smiley, and
Barbara and David Wyatt, 2024.26

TWM: Can you tell us about the history of the Carter’s cast of Bartholdi’s Liberty Enlightening the World? If I remember correctly, it’s one of only five casts Bartholdi made.

AE: There are countless replicas of the Statue of Liberty that began emerging in the 1870s. Some of these are very refined terra cottas (as we have in the show) and others are more in the variety of tchotchkes. The Carter’s is amongst the finest 19^th-century examples ever made, one of 5 domestic-scaled casts he made in bronze with his preferred foundry. It passed through the family of a French painter before coming to America as a wedding present for an American serviceman and French woman after World War II.

TWM: Do the curators have a behind-the-scenes story from the preparation of the exhibition that they could share?

AE: So many, but perhaps the two most magical moments were in visiting the Bartholdi Museum in Colmar, France, and being immersed in Bartholdi’s birthplace and the current location of his archive. Researching in the twilight of that building was a truly special experience. The other moment that I will long remember is my first visit to Liberty Island and seeing the Statue of Liberty up close for the first time. It was impossible not to get butterflies when seeing its massive scale and feeling its immense historical significance that so clearly resonated with the thousands of people visiting at the same time.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), I Love Liberty, 1982, planographic print, Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York; The Roy Lichtenstein Study Collection, gift of the Roy Lichtenstein
Foundation, 2019.161, © 2025 Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS

TWM: How has America’s view of Lady Liberty changed over the past 150 years?

AE: It has continually evolved, but Americans’ views of the Statue have never been universal. As early as 1886, there were great declarations of patriotism in view of the monument and, simultaneously, critics who pointed to its hollowness as a monument to liberty in a land where inequalities were profound. This continues to the present, and will likely continue beyond that.

TWM: What was the biggest challenge the Carter faced in organizing The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol?

AE: With a sculpture that engenders so many different perspectives, it is a major challenge to feel like a curatorial team can fully represent them all. If there are 100 works in the show, they say 100 different things about Lady Liberty, and no matter how thorough we are, there are perspectives that do not get as much attention here. Wrestling with that reality is hard, but we know that this is not intended to tell every story, just to show that there are so many to tell—including those that have not yet been written.

TWM: Why do you think that the Statue of Liberty continues to inspire artists today?

AE: It serves as an avatar of America, and that will always make it an object that inspires those who want to think about the nation in all its areas of strength and areas where we may still strive to realize the ideals of liberty that are fundamental to the nation.

Pacita Abad (1946–2004), L.A. Liberty, 1992, Acrylic, cotton yarn, plastic buttons, mirrors, gold
thread, painted cloth on stitched and padded canvas, Courtesy Pacita Abad Art Estate and
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, T. B. Walker
Acquisition Fund, 2022, 2022.87, © Pacita Abad Art Estate

TWM: Does the exhibition address the tension between the ideals the Statue represents and the realities of American culture today?

AE: Yes, but not just in the context of American culture today. The brilliance of this monument is that it is at the fulcrum of 150 years of tension between the ideals of American liberty and the complex lived realities of many Americans.

TWM: Is there one work in the exhibition that you feel deserves special attention?

AE: There is a fabulous 1890s cabinet with the Statue of Liberty at the top. It seems so different than many other works from the period, but it shows just how quickly this New York sculpture became part of the visual vernacular across the nation and across media.

Pierre Petit (1832–1909), [Construction of the skeleton and plaster surface of the left arm and
hand of the Statue of Liberty, at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop in Paris, 1881–1883], 1883,
albumen silver print, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.,
2020634757

AE: Since its inception, the Statue of Liberty has been a dynamic, provocative, and pervasive artwork that has become one of the most powerful icons in American visual culture and something so ubiquitous that it has, on occasion, been taken for granted in its influence to shape and reflect the discourse about American identity.

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