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This work, acquired in October 2018, is the The New York Times explains in a recent
museum’s first piece by Petah Coyne, and article on her work, Coyne’s use of “wax as a
heralds an exhibition of her work planned for
2021. The piece is installed in the
mezzanine of the Elvehjem building
alongside works by Louise Nevelson and
Lee Bontecou. Untitled #1378 (Zelda
Fitzgerald) sits at the top of the stairs where
precise lighting and the ultra-clear glass of
the vitrine make it irresistible; visitors are
drawn to the luminous apparition.
Coyne’s evocative and multilayered work
intertwines visual and written storytelling.
The relationship between her work and that
of writers will be the focus of the 2021
exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art,
which will travel to two additional venues.
Exploring Coyne’s long and deep
relationships with writing, and particularly
women authors, this exhibition will also
Zelda Holds
Court on the
Mezzanine
provide important opportunity to engage
with faculty and students from across the
campus. Central to the exhibition is this
work, an homage, and evocation, and shrine
to Zelda Fitzgerald. Unusually for Coyne,
this work is encased within a vitrine, but one
of super-transparent glass, so the
“entrapment” of the piece is both very present,
and then strangely invisible to the viewer. As
core material came in 1994” and after
working with a chemist, Coyne has patented
an archival wax formula that she uses as her
signature material. Often Coyne’s works
hang from the ceiling, or, alternately spread
across the floor.
Zelda is unusual, but not unique in her
oeuvre, being presented on a pedestal that is
designed specifically for this work. The
Chazen’s collection is particularly strong in
sculpture, both of mid-20th century and
contemporary ceramics. Coyne’s work does
not fit neatly into either of these categories,
but in its structure and presentation, has
direct threads to both.
The Chazen’s Joen Greenwood Endowment
Fund is specifically intended to support the
acquisition and exhibition of work by
contemporary women artists. Purchase of
the work is made possible by the endowment.
*Full list of materials: Silk flowers, specially formulated
wax, candles, acrylic paint, white pigment, pearl-head
pins, artificial pearl strands, cast wax statuary figure, cast
wax hand sculptures, ribbon, knitting needles, steel rods,
chicken-wire, washers, fabric, thread, wire, horse hair,
Masonite, plywood, drywall, plaster, glue, filament, rubber,
steel, wood and metal screws, maple, laminated Luxar.