Petah Coyne

American, born 1953

Untitled #1373 (Ms. Redstockings: Notes to Women Sculptors in One Hundred Years)

© Petah Coyne

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

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© Petah Coyne

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Petah Coyne

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Untitled #1373 (Ms. Redstockings: Notes to Women Sculptors in One Hundred Years), 1998-2012

Artwork Details

Materials

silk flowers, specially formulated wax, candles, acrylic paint, white pigment, pearl-headed hat pins, cast-wax statuary figure, fabric, wire, plywood, drywall, plaster, glue, filament, cell-u-clay, rubber, metal sheeting, steel, wood and metal screws, maple, laminated Luxar, lace corset, human hair, antique Chinese bound shoes, letters, photographs, artist prints, drawings, and bound book

Measurements

overall (with vitrine): 69 3/4 x 63 1/2 x 45 1/4 inches (177.165 x 161.29 x 114.935 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

Charles Clifton Fund, by exchange, Gift of Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild, by exchange, Gift of Miss Amelia E. White, by exchange, Gift of Gordon Washburn, by exchange, Gift of Mrs. Richard J. Sherman, by exchange, Gift of Thomas Robins, Jr., in memory of Louisa Robins, by exchange and Gift of Thomas Robins, Jr., by exchange, 2012

Accession ID

2012:22a-b

Petah Coyne derives inspiration from myriad sources, such as literature, film, theology, art history, and her personal memories. Her sculptural practice and the resulting elaborate installations comprise unconventional materials, which include candles, ribbons, hair, artificial flowers, taxidermy birds, and Catholic statuary. The artist’s haunting and decadent imagery evokes themes of innocence and seduction, beauty and grotesque, natural and unnatural, and life and death. Her work also serves as a visual record of the passage of time. A heavy, almost impasto-like, buildup of wax records Coyne’s slow, methodical creative process. Untitled #1373 (Ms. Redstockings: Notes to Women Sculptors in One Hundred Years) was conceived as a kind of time capsule; messages to future women artists are hidden within the mysterious landscape of flowers that have been dipped and embedded in wax. Copies of these testaments to female artists of the past, present, and future can be read in the book that accompanies the sculpture.

Label from For the Love of Things: Still Life, February 27–May 29, 2016