Sue Coe
Encyclopedia
Sue Coe is an English
artist
and illustrator
working primarily in drawing
and printmaking
, often in the form of illustrated books and comics
. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art
in London
, lived in New York City
from 1972 to 2001. She currently lives in upstate New York
. Her work is highly political, often directed against capitalism
and cruelty to animals
.
, meat packing, apartheid, sweat shops, prisons, AIDS
, and war
. Her commentary on political events and social injustice is published in newspapers, magazines and books. The results of her investigations are hung in museum and gallery exhibitions and form an essential part of personal fine print collections by artists and activists alike. Coe's paintings and prints are auctioned as fund raisers for a variety of progressive causes, and since 1998, she has sold prints to benefit animal rights organizations.
Her major influences include the works of Chaim Soutine
and José Guadalupe Posada
, Käthe Kollwitz
, Francisco Goya and Rembrandt. She is a frequent contributor to World War 3 Illustrated
, and has seen her work published in The Progressive
, Mother Jones
, Blab
, The New York Times
, The New Yorker
, Time Magazine, Newsweek
The Nation
and countless other periodicals.
In the 1980s, Coe was featured on the cover of Art News and her artwork has appeared in numerous museum collections and exhibitions. In 2002, Brown University
staged an exhibition of her work titled Commitment to the Struggle: The Art of Sue Coe.
Recent projects include 9-11, on the collapse of the World Trade Center
and her publication Bully: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (2004), a critique of the Bush administration. Her latest book Sheep of Fools… a song cycle for 5 voices was published in September 2005.
She taught courses at Parsons School of Design about social awareness in art.
Her work is represented by Galerie St. Etienne in New York City
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
working primarily in drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
and printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
, often in the form of illustrated books and comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
. She grew up close to a slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, lived in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from 1972 to 2001. She currently lives in upstate New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Her work is highly political, often directed against capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
.
Career
For a quarter century she has explored factory farmingFactory farming
Factory farming is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption...
, meat packing, apartheid, sweat shops, prisons, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, and war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
. Her commentary on political events and social injustice is published in newspapers, magazines and books. The results of her investigations are hung in museum and gallery exhibitions and form an essential part of personal fine print collections by artists and activists alike. Coe's paintings and prints are auctioned as fund raisers for a variety of progressive causes, and since 1998, she has sold prints to benefit animal rights organizations.
Her major influences include the works of Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
and José Guadalupe Posada
José Guadalupe Posada
Jose Guadalupe Posada: was a Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and political engagement....
, Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
, Francisco Goya and Rembrandt. She is a frequent contributor to World War 3 Illustrated
World War 3 Illustrated
World War 3 Illustrated is an American comics anthology magazine with a left-wing political focus, founded in 1980 by New York comic book artists Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman, and painter Christof Kohlhofer, and subsequently produced by a collective with a rotating editorship...
, and has seen her work published in The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, Blab
Blab
Blab! is a comics anthology edited by Monte Beauchamp. Though its primary focus is comics, it regularly features articles with non-comics illustration and graphic design. Early issues were published by Kitchen Sink Press...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Time Magazine, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
and countless other periodicals.
In the 1980s, Coe was featured on the cover of Art News and her artwork has appeared in numerous museum collections and exhibitions. In 2002, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
staged an exhibition of her work titled Commitment to the Struggle: The Art of Sue Coe.
Recent projects include 9-11, on the collapse of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
and her publication Bully: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (2004), a critique of the Bush administration. Her latest book Sheep of Fools… a song cycle for 5 voices was published in September 2005.
She taught courses at Parsons School of Design about social awareness in art.
Her work is represented by Galerie St. Etienne in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Selected bibliography
- How to Commit Suicide in South Africa (with Holly Metz). (1984) Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. ISBN 0-394-62024-0 - Meat: Animals and Industry (with Mandy Coe). (1991) Gallerie Publications. ISBN 0-9693361-6-0
- Dead Meat. (1996) Four Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight Windows was an independent book publisher in New York City. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon. In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways...
. ISBN 1-56858-041-X - Pit's Letter. (2000) Four Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight Windows was an independent book publisher in New York City. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon. In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways...
. ISBN 1-56858-163-7 - Bully!: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (with Judith Brody). (2004) Four Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight Windows was an independent book publisher in New York City. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon. In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways...
. ISBN 1-56858-323-0 - Sheep of Fools (with Judith Brody). (2005) Fantagraphics BooksFantagraphics BooksFantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
. ISBN 1-56097-660-8