Meet Lady Liberty: America’s symbol of freedom finally tells her story at the Carter

This August, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art will unveil The Statue of Liberty from Bartholdi to Warhol, a sweeping exploration of how one of the world’s most recognizable symbols has been reimagined, reinterpreted, and reclaimed by artists over 150 years. Opening on Aug. 16, 2026—just weeks after the nation’s 250th anniversary—and running through Jan. 3, 2027, before traveling to Denver, the free exhibition arrives at a moment when questions of American identity feel more urgent than ever.

America’s 250th anniversary, notes Andrew Eschelbacher, the Carter’s Director of Collections & Exhibitions and the show’s curator, “does not so much shape the exhibition’s narrative as much as it provides an interesting backdrop. 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. We are certainly in a broader cultural moment when the 250th is stoking similar conversations, which can inform how people think about this exhibition.”

At the show’s heart is a rare bronze cast of original designer Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Liberty Enlightening the World (1894–1901)—Lady Liberty’s official name. It’s one of only five domestic-scale reductions made during the artist’s lifetime. Acquired by the Carter in 2024, it “showcases an exceptional artwork that almost everyone in our community—regardless of their background or education—could recognize,” says Andrew Eschelbacher. “Once we had that, we started to think about the work’s place in popular culture, and how its ubiquity sometimes leads us not to look as deeply into its history.”

The exhibition unfolds across four sections, each tracing a distinct phase in the statue’s cultural evolution. Creating a Monument (1865–1917) delves into the statue’s origins, from its conception in the wake of the Civil War to its unveiling as a Franco-American symbol of shared democratic ideals. Creating an Icon (1917–1962) immerses visitors in the deluge of Statue of Liberty imagery that saturated visual culture during the world wars and the postwar era, featuring works by Norman Rockwell, Margaret Bourke-White, and filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin. Transforming an Icon (1962–2001) explores how pop artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Colescott detached the statue’s image from its original form, using it to probe questions of identity, race, and consumerism. The exhibition culminates with contemporary works, including Nari Ward’s Lazarus, which grapple with the statue’s enduring resonance in the 21st century.

“I find Nari Ward’s work at once full of hope and a reminder of the work we have yet to do to achieve some of the ambitions that are so embedded not only in Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus, but also in our founding ideas,” Eschelbacher reflects. “As Ward pulls out key words and phrases from Lazarus’ poem—tired, poor, refuse, huddled, tempest-tost—there is, for me, an immediate thought about the promise that the statue suggests. At the same time, seeing the words isolated and not enfolded within the rest of Lazarus’ verse gives them a certain edge that prompts me to think more broadly about questions of modern immigration and equity. I love that Ward talks about the importance of using shoelaces to create it, as everyone has had an experience with them so, like the statue, there is an individual connection.”

Community members were invited to contribute their viewpoint, as well. A dedicated installation in the closing section displays personal Statue of Liberty objects—from rubber ducks to dolls—that were loaned to the museum. “Statue of Liberty imagery and objects are so incredibly pervasive in our lives,” Eschelbacher explains. “Not just tourist knickknacks picked up in New York, but on logos and posters, printed on T-shirts, and seen across our television screens. 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 we have, on occasion, taken for granted its influence to shape and reflect the discourse about American identity. The goal here is to show how these Statue of Liberty objects exist not just in the realm of an art museum, but in the day-to-day world of our community.”

—LINDSEY WILSON