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Bobby Sands

Bobby Sands

Artist/Maker (English, b. 1951)
Date1982–83
MediumPhoto-etching
DimensionsImage: 5 7/8 × 7 3/4 in. (14.9 × 19.7 cm)
Sheet: 7 1/4 × 10 1/2 in. (18.4 × 26.7 cm)
Credit LineSpecial Acquisitions Fund
EditionA/P (edition of 150)
Object number1984.22
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Sue CoeMore Information
Social and political activist Sue Coe here depicts the death of Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). While incarcerated, Sands died leading a 1981 hunger strike in which he and other IRA detainees sought to regain status as political prisoners. His death incited a new surge of IRA activity and increased tensions between Irish nationalists and the British government. Coe's predilection for associating evil with power and innocence with the oppressed is evident in the stark contrast of Sand's white corpse against the ominous black background.
Provenance(P.P.O.W. Gallery, Inc., New York); purchased 1984 by Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OHExhibition History
Prints Since 1960
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 25, 1998 - November 1, 1998 )
Print Portfolios Since 1960
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 6, 1998 - December 20, 1998 )
Out of Albion: British Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2008 - December 23, 2008 )
A Picture of Health: Art and the Mechanisms of Healing
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 2, 2016 - May 29, 2016 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary
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We welcome additional information and suggestions for improvement. Please email us at AMAMcurator@oberlin.edu.