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Free Cooper Union Mounts Renegade Art Show

New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz preceded me in Jamshed Bharucha's office by only a few minutes. He was there, as I was, for tonight's opening of Step Down, the Free Cooper Union-organized companion to the school's official year-end Show Up exhibition. Saltz's appearance at the year-end show

Mostafa Heddaya

Mostafa Heddaya

— 4 min read
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The school’s official show, SHOW UP, framing a “Free Education to All” banner in the lobby of the engineering school at 41 Cooper. (all photographs by the author for Hyperallergic)

New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz preceded me in Jamshed Bharucha’s office by only a few minutes. He was there, as I was, for tonight’s opening of Step Down, the Free Cooper Union-organized companion to the school’s official year-end Show Up exhibition. Saltz’s appearance at the year-end show of one of Manhattan’s leading art schools is not a surprise, but his signing of Free Cooper Union’s statement of no confidence (as well as their guestbook) was just another blow to what by now can only be characterized as the Cooper Union PR piñata.

Jerry Saltz was here.
Jerry Saltz was here. (click to enlarge)

A sophomore, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that Saltz also “said something funny about the Cooper situation that related to being an art critic.” That the art critic delivered comments that weren’t terribly memorable belies a larger truth: the exhibition Free Cooper Union put together, in only a week’s time, is probably one of the most significant and symbolic shows of the year.

After the administration unceremoniously denied them participation in Cooper’s tri-partite culminating show, Free Cooper Union put out a call for works last week. The resulting exhibition features the work of students, faculty, and alumni, including written and visual work by Walid Raad, Sharon Hayes, Robert Bordo, Dennis Adams, Pam Lins, and others. Though the lower six floors of the Foundation were awash with visitors, a special energy hummed on the dimly-lit seventh floor, where the black-painted walls and red lighting had the effect of offsetting the electrifying charisma of the works on display, giving an intimate aura to an assembled corpus that ranges from playful to austere.

There is no sense in trying to unpack here what is, even by blockbuster-fair standards, a dizzying array of works, both within Free Cooper’s subversive Step Down and the larger assortment of student works occupying every floor of the Foundation Building and much of the engineering school at 41 Cooper.  The images that follow are meant to convey an impression of the scene, primarily on the seventh floor but also throughout the student shows. The point is — this is an important exhibition, singular in capturing a raw provocation to authority. It’s an endeavor as worthwhile as it is rare.

Step Down runs Tuesday – Saturday, 5 – 7 pm through June 15 on the seventh floor of the Foundation Building. Show Up runs during the same days from 12 – 7 pm at the Foundation Building and 41 Cooper Square (Cooper Square, East Village, Manhattan).

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Red lamps have illuminated Bharucha’s office by night, signaling his office’s occupation.
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Debt counter (left) and wordplay in the form of an older drawing by The Bruce High Quality Foundation that reads “Sometimes I want to Ki(ll)ss the President” (right).
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The seventh floor hallway, off the main exhibition space, is papered with well-executed and largely hilarious satires, parodies, and eviscerations culled from the movement thus far.
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Bharucha’s desk, containing a copy of Reputation Rules, which a Hyperallergic source described as belonging to Board secretary Lawrence Cacciatore.
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Bharucha’s office.
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The downtown view from Bharucha’s office.
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The architecture show on the third floor of the Foundation Building.
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Beyond the seventh floor, the hallways throughout the Foundation Building also featured student artwork, though the neon lighting and spare white walls felt, well, a bit clinical.
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Specially-produced Trustee Matchbooks, each featuring a trustee headshot and bio, distributed by Cooper Union at their very first post-tuition protest.
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A student contributes to a collaborative chalkboard.
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An assortment of protest literature was contributed to the show.
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Exhibition view of the main space on the seventh floor of the Foundation Building.