Cure/Heal from 10: Artist as Catalyst

Lorna Simpson

1992

A screenprint that pairs a grainy black-and-white image of two worn women’s heels with the printed caption “CURE/HEAL,” prompting reflection on memory, bodily experience, and the politics of care.

A dense black rectangle holds the small, velvety shoes—shadowed, slightly askew—so that the stark, red caption beneath lands like an unsettling diagnosis after a quiet, ambiguous moment of looking.

This work exemplifies how 1990s artists like Lorna Simpson used the pairing of found photographic imagery and terse text to make private loss and social histories visible, inviting questions about identity, memory, and healing.

Palette

Art Terms

Silkscreen Print Conceptual art Appropriation Investigating identity Feminist art Contemporary art

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Narrative Prints

1976

Photographs by Alfred Capel-Cure

1981

The Painter and the Printer: Robert Motherwell's Graphics

1980