By

Principal Investigators
Hope Saska; museum and field studies graduate students

Collaboration + support
CU Art Museum; CU University Libraries’ Special Collections

Immigrant print by Hung LiuFifteenth-century woodcuts, Catholic Church plenary indulgences, a 3Dcharacterization of a New York City subway. These prints, while vastlydifferent in time and topic, all have one thing in common: The unifyingtheme of persuasion.

In the Persuasive Prints exhibition at the CU Art Museum, printsgathered from the museum’s collection, augmented with loans fromCU University Libraries’ Special Collections, showed how artists andprintmakers combined images, textand artistic techniques to persuadeviewers.

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

Curated by graduate students in the museum’s practicum seminar, thediverse exhibition featured 35 engravings, etchings, lithographs andwoodcuts created from the 1500s to today. Students focused on howprintmaking 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 fromKemper Family Foundations, UMB Bank; anonymous; Polly and MarkAddison;Karen and Don Ringsby; College of Arts and Sciences, University of ColoradoBoulder; Wayne and Nona Yakes and contributions from over 200 donors, CUArt Museum, 鶹Ƶ, S2019.484. Photo courtesyofShark’s Ink, ©Hung Liu / Shark’s Ink.