In Person Tour
Thursday, Aug 7 at 3:00PM
In Person
Brooklyn Museum
Ruckus Manhattan
For the first time in more than 30 years—and on the city’s 400th birthday—
experience a fantastical and hilarious tribute to New York.
Ruckus Manhattan opened at Marlborough Gallery in 1976 as a sprawling,
6,400-square-foot “sculptural comic book” of urban life.
Created by artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross with their collaborators in The Ruckus Construction Co.,
the vibrant installation satirized the city with a dynamic mix of painting, sculpture, performance,
and puppetry. From a high-heeled Statue of Liberty to a Financial District in flames,
Ruckus Manhattan’s visual metaphorscaptured the chaos, corruption, sexuality, and creativity of 1970s NYC.
A standout sculptural element of the original work, Dame of the Narrows now returns
to public view for the first time since 1994. Featuring a playfully exaggerated version of the
Staten Island Ferry set against a whimsical backdrop of Lower Manhattan, the piece was given
to the Brooklyn Museum in 1977. Joining it in this exhibition is an audacious component of
Ruckus Manhattan called 42nd Street Porno Bookstore. Witness this fresh, funny, and deeply
New York celebration of a city that so many love to hate—and to claim as their own.
Red Grooms called Ruckus Manhattan "a sculptural novel about New York City."
It covered 6,400 sq ft of gallery space, and was a rollercoaster ride through New York's
familiar places and buildings, populated with busy inhabitants, created with loving detail,
but with a complete disregard for scale. It was meant to be a lot of fun, and it is.
Tour led by Brooklyn Museum Guide and GNPS member
Ellen Sussman
This tour is part of the Brooklyn Museum Tours
and a certain number of spot are reserved for members of GNPS
This event has a waitlist option.
Once the tour fills up you can add your name to the waitlist.
If you register and your plans change,
please cancel your registration so that
someone on the waitlist can have your spot.