Persuasive prints

Fifteenth-century woodcuts, Catholic Church plenary indulgences, a 3D characterization of a New York City subway. These prints, while vastly different in time and topic, all have one thing in common: The unifying theme of persuasion.

In the Persuasive Prints exhibition at the CU Art Museum, prints gathered from the museum’s collection, augmented with loans from CU University Libraries’ Special Collections, showed how artists and printmakers combined images, text and artistic techniques to persuade viewers. 

“The prints are all in some way trying to convey a story, communicate some kind of message to the viewer,” said Hope Saska, curator of collections and exhibitions at the CU Art Museum.

Curated by graduate students in the museum’s practicum seminar, the diverse exhibition featured 35 engravings, etchings, lithographs and woodcuts created from the 1500s to today. Students focused on how printmaking contributed to public dialogue through the years.

Image credit: Hung Liu, Chinese (b. 1948), Official Portraits: Immigrant, 2006, color lithograph, 30 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches. Purchased as part of The Sharkive, with funds from Kemper Family Foundations, UMB Bank; anonymous; Polly and Mark Addison; Karen and Don Ringsby; College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder; Wayne and Nona Yakes and contributions from over 200 donors, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder, S2019.484. Photo courtesy of Shark’s Ink, ©Hung Liu / Shark’s Ink.