Heel
of the Boot: prints by Sue Coe
co-curated by Marilyn Zeitlin and Jean Makin
Arizona State University Art Museum, Nelson Fine Arts Center,
Tempe, AZ
October 19-December 29, 1996
This exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective (1979-1996)
of Sue Coe's prints to date. The museum maintains in its print archive
a complete inventory of Coe's etchings and lithographs.
"The content of Coe's work in prints reflects her commitment
to bring into our field of vision -- sometimes in an in-your-face way --
the tragedy of those who are vulnerable to the inhumane use of power. Sue
Coe's work -- all of it -- is about power: the misuse of it, the legitimation
of its use against the vulnerable. She is the toughest and tenderest, most
persistent and most persuasive artist working to awaken people from the
torpor of indifference that she equates with complicity. The issues that
she has focused on form a calculus of the vulnerable: victims of racism;
of war, no matter which side they are on; women; children; and most vulnerable
of all, animals.
Since 1979, Coe has made prints as a means to extend the reach of
her work and the messages it carries. This is in the tradition of the historical
role of prints, since an edition makes multiple copies of an image, defying
the elite distribution system in which paintings and other unique art objects
circulate. Further, the relationaship of printmaking to the printing press
is a close one, so that there exists a continuity between two kinds of
persuasion, verbal and visual, in Coe's prints. She lampoons the purveyors
of power, the politicians or soldiers or butchers."
from
the catalog essay by Marilyn Zeitlin, Director, ASU Museum
Subsequent exhibition at the University of Alabama's Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, February 6-March 1, 1998.
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