Student Acquisition Proposal: Corita Kent, news of the week, c. 1969, serigraph.

HNRS 316/17 : Sacred Things | April 21, 2015 Rose Guth, Mina Krenz, Caroline Lienung, and Sam Mercer

NEWS OF THE WEEK, c. 1969, serigraph. Corita Art Center Catalog Number 69 - 64. 12” x 23”

FORMAL DESCRIPTION

Top red part (⅔ of the print): Text: “Newsweek APRIL 12, 1965 35 CENTS Profile of the Viet Cong LIFE July 2, 1965 35 cents” Image: Vietnamese man being held by a soldier

Bottom right green (about ⅙ of the print): Text: “LIFE Deeper into the Vietnam War A marine is evacuated during patrol action against the Vietcong, July 2, 1965” Image: four soldiers limping along, holding each other up

Bottom Left Green (about ⅙ of the print): Text: “I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of dogs, Hell and despair are upon me, crack again and crack the marksman, I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinned with the ooze of my skin. I fall on the weeds and stones, the riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close, taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks. Agonies are one of my changes of garments, I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person, my hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a can and observe. Walt Whitman” Image: a plan/cutaway of a slave ship, similar to what would have been used to transport African

people to be sold into slavery. The plan shows the configuration in which slaves would be chained lying down to travel for sometimes 100 days.

ABOUT THE PIECE

This specific piece from 1969 is an example of Corita’s activist art, which is arguably the strongest part of her complete life’s work. Created a year after she left the Immaculate Heart order, this piece represents the shift her work took thematically, moving from religious and joyous pieces to darker, more confrontational and political pieces. Although she created other prints surrounding her activism, this particular print combines elements from mass media, American poetry, and powerful imagery, along with striking colors and an unusual double-square, vertical composition.

The largest part of the print takes up the upper two-thirds of the piece and is a striking red color. This part of the print is an appropriation of a Newsweek magazine published during the Vietnam War in 1965. It shows a man, presumably a Viet Cong man, being held by a soldier in tall grass. The Viet Cong were a political organization and army in South Vietnam and

Cambodia that fought the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Also known as the National Liberation Front and aided by North Vietnam, the Viet Cong fought against anti-communist forces (the U.S.) to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. The U.S. feared the spread of communism around the world so fought against the Viet Cong. Regular U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, the same year from which both of the magazines included in this print come. U.S. operations in Vietnam crossed international borders; areas of Laos and Cambodia were heavily bombed by U.S. forces as American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, the same year that the communist side launched the Tet Offensive, which aimed to overthrow the South Vietnamese government.

Although the Tet Offensive failed, it became the turning point in the war because it revealed to a large segment of the United States population that the U.S. government’s claims of progress toward winning the war were illusory despite many years of massive U.S. military aid to South Vietnam. Disillusionment with the war by the U.S. led to the gradual withdrawal of U.S. ground forces as part of a policy known as Vietnamization, which aimed to end American involvement in the war. A large anti-Vietnam War movement developed among American citizens and was part of a larger Counterculture movement of the 1960s. This print, news of the week, represents much of America’s anti-war feelings and reveals Corita’s personal objections to the war efforts.

Next to the two magazine depictions of the Vietnam War and beside her own handwritten excerpt of a Walt Whitman poem, Kent places an image of the layout of a slave ship, many of which were brought from Africa to various western countries. This plan of the ship shows the configuration that slaves would be arranged in, lying flat on the ground next to each other and chained into position, sometimes being forced to lay like this for months at a time. This part of the work, which is clearly not contemporaneous with the Vietnam War, shows Kent’s harsh commentary on the war and her objections to the US’s involvement with it, equating the treatment of the Vietnamese people with a type of slavery. Alongside Walt Whitman’s poem which also discusses being a slave and includes graphic and gory war descriptions, this image on the bottom, lefthand side of this print reveals her engagement as an activist against the war and her skill in combining powerful images and colors to create a striking and forceful composition.

CORITA KENT (1918-1986)

SIster Mary Corita Kent was born in Iowa in 1918, but grew up in Los Angeles, California, joining the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the age of 18. Corita attended Immaculate Heart College as an undergraduate and received her masters degree in Art History from the University of Southern California before continuing on to become the chair the Art Department at Immaculate Heart College. In the beginning of her career as a serigraph artist, Corita focused on large swaths of color and bold text, borrowing images and words from the Bible, popular culture, and various advertising campaigns. Later in her life in the 1960s and 70s, Corita shifted her work from purely inspirational and graphic pieces to instead focus on her political and activist efforts, creating serigraphs that explored and

protested issues like the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and Farm Worker Rights. Using serigraphs for the ease of circulation and mass production, Corita aimed to get her message across to others. Similar in style to contemporaries like Andy Warhol, Corita Kent used popular imagery and culture to probe issues of justice, religion, human rights, and life as she saw it in her lifetime. Fighting cancer three different times in her life, she struggled with the disease and with what was going on around her in the world, which is reflected in her prints in general and specifically in news of the week.

CONSIDERATIONS When choosing a piece of Corita Kent’s to acquire for the university’s print collection, we took into consideration many factors. We wanted the work to be visually interesting and provocative, to fit in with USD’s various mission statements, to be characteristic of Kent’s style, to be distinct from Kent’s prints already at USD or nearby institutions, to complement and enhance the existing print collection, and to easily fit into future exhibitions or curricular programs at USD. We also wanted to make sure the piece had meaning for the four of us as women at the University of San Diego, that could extend to our fellow students.

VISUAL This piece, as outlined above, combines bright colors, relevant material culture, poetry, and skillful composition to create a visually appealing, unique, and thought-provoking piece that will entice students and viewers to appreciate and spend time with the artwork.

MISSION STATEMENTS When looking into the place that this work could have at USD, we examined the mission statements and goals of three areas: the university as a whole, the University Galleries and Print Collection, and the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture. The statements are as follows:

• USD Mission Statement - The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic institution committed to advancing academic excellence, expanding liberal and professional knowledge, creating a diverse and inclusive community, and preparing leaders dedicated to ethical conduct and compassionate service.

• USD Core Values - Academic excellence, knowledge, community, ethical conduct, compassionate service

• USD Vision - The University of San Diego is a nationally preeminent Catholic university known for educating students who are globally competent, ethical leaders working and serving in our complex and changing world.

• The University Galleries aim to engage undergraduate and graduate students in thinking deeply about the role of visual and material culture in our lives.

• Center for Catholic Thought and Culture Mission - Develop thought-provoking programs that will engage the university and local community in critical dialogue with the Catholic intellectual and cultural traditions. Organize conferences, liturgical and cultural events and exhibits that showcase the Catholic Church’s rich heritage and its contributions to the arts, letters and sciences and to all which ennobles humans to pursue what is right and just.

These statements highlight social justice, ethical conduct, compassionate service, global competence, service in a complex world, the role of visual culture in our history and world, and the Catholic Church’s role in art, culture, and justice. This print, news of the week,

scrutinizes the United States’ stance on war and therefore on social justice and ethics. By engaging with topics of politics and activism as a former Catholic nun, Corita challenged the Church’s contributions to art and to the global stage, creating a dialogue about pursuing justice in an unjust world. If added to the university’s collection, the print will invite students to engage with these difficult questions of justice in our world, especially in the context of Catholicism, much like they did for Corita. CHARACTERISTIC OF KENT’S STYLE A large portion of Corita’s work involves her activist efforts in the 1960s. Although a big part of her work, mostly from her early life, simply contained meaningful imagery and

phrases often taken from secular and religious realms to inspire or give hope to people, Kent’s activist work makes up some of her most important prints. Including pieces that deal with race, current events, war, and social justice, Kent’s activist pieces are bold, colorful, and provocative, often borrowing media photos or mass culture references in a unique way to create a commentary or protest image out of the original. Similar compositions, like love your brother and i’m glad i can feel pain (at right) were created at the same time and represent other of her activist works.

REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE A number of institutions in the Southern California region own prints by Corita Kent. USD itself owns around 20 prints (housed with University Design). The San Diego Museum of Art owns just one print by Kent, entitled Fiat. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego notably does not have any pieces by Kent in their permanent collection. Moving north to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art owns two pieces by Kent, both from the early 1950s and depicting religious subjects. The Grunwald Center at the UCLA Hammer Museum houses 1400 prints by Kent and, along with the Corita Art Center in LA, represents the largest range of Kent’s work, including the print in question, news of the week, and many similar ones. Looking solely at San Diego institutions, Corita Kent’s work is highly underrepresented. None of the twenty something prints housed in art institutions in San Diego deal directly with Kent’s activism. Although there was an exhibition of Kent’s work at St. Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego in 2005, it does not appear that any institutions in San Diego have made it a priority to collect Kent’s work in the ten years since this exhibition. Our print, news of the week, would begin a movement toward representing Kent’s important activist artwork in the San Diego area. This print would be the only one of its kind locally.

Prints by Corita Kent that USD currently owns:

Print by Corita Kent owned by museums in San Diego (San Diego Museum of Art)

Similar (in composition, subject-matter) Works at the Grunwald Center at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and at the Corita Art Center, LA:

SIGNIFICANCE FOR OUR PRINT COLLECTION News of the week would join an incredible, growing collection of works on paper already housed in USD’s print collection. Although it is expanding, the collection does not include a sufficient amount of art by women, especially contemporary artists, activist artists, and artists somehow associated with the Catholic Church. Joining socially-conscious, contemporary, women artists like Kara Walker and Ana Maria Hernando already represented in the collection, Corita Kent’s print news of the week would add a further and unique component of her activism, Whereas Ana Maria Hernando engages with questions of femininity, and Kara Walker creates pieces about race and race relations, Corita Kent’s activist art would add the distinct element of engaging with specific events of the 1960s, particularly the Vietnam War. Corita Kent can also be shown as similar to artists like Shepard Fairey—who is represented in the print collection—in terms of subject matter (current events and protest material) and in the medium of screen printing.

FUTURE EXHIBITION POSSIBILITIES Much like the current exhibition entitled Selma, 1965: Bruce Davidson and the Photography of Civil Rights, which uses Life, Newsweek and other popular 1960s magazines and material culture sources to enhance and enrich the Bruce Davidson photographs displayed on the walls, news of the week encourages a blend of material culture publications, advertisements, literary sources and historical references, and could open up the opportunity for an exhibition that features Kent’s work as the jumping off point for a cross-disciplinary collaboration.

CURRICULAR AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR APPLICATIONS This work, with its far reaching subject-matter, can be utilized by many departments on USD’s campus, besides just the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History. Because it takes up the subject of the Vietnam War, this piece will have significance for the Political Science, International Relations, and History departments, as well as the Ethnic Studies and Sociology departments. The print’s use of 19th century American poet Walt Whitman’s poetry will make the piece relevant for the English department, as well. It could also have significance in future Honors team-taught classes, like this one, as it is a distinctly multi-disciplinary piece of art. This piece could also have significance in student organizations and centers across campus, including the Women’s Center, the United Front Multicultural Center, the Changemaker Student Committee, etc.

RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE Besides the fact that Corita Kent was a Catholic nun, this specific piece has religious significance because it deals with the central Catholic teaching of Social Justice and Ethics. Kent, particularly in her activist work, like news of the week, engages with the issues of the Catholic church that she was so familiar with. She probed these issues and

applied her beliefs on human rights and social justice to her work, discussing current events, politics, race relations through the lens of social justice.

MEANING FOR STUDENTS This piece has significance for us as a group of young, engaged women at the University of San Diego. Corrupt Kent was a powerful woman confronting the injustices in society, and exploring and protesting the wrongs of the world around her. We hope that the piece that we choose by Corita Kent will have the same impact on students at USD as she had on her very own students at Immaculate Heart. The same way she taught her students to seek revelation in everyday situations, we hope that this piece will help students see the world anew, prompt them to be activists wherever they are, and inspire them to confront what is not just even if they only take a quick glance at it on their way to class.

MARKET All of the serigraphs for sale at the Corita Art Center are priced between $1000 and $2800. News of the week is priced at $1340, so it is in the lower price range of her works. Because it represents one of the major realms of her work—her activist prints—this is a reasonable price. Phillips Auction House sold this set of two pieces (below) for between $4000 and $6000 in 2012, making the price of $1340 quite low compared to the sale prices of her pieces at auction.

with love to the every day miracle, c. 1967, serigraph; why do you not think of him, c. 1973, serigraph.

Corita Kent and news of the week have similarities with other artists from the same time period who worked in similar media and style, Andy Warhol and Roy Liechtenstein. Certain works of theirs (see below), which are comparable in time period and engagement with political issues, sold for $25,000 in 2008 and $37,500 in 2009, respectively. This is a huge

disparity of price as compared to news of the week, showing that the price listed from the Corita Art Center is a reasonable one and presents a lucrative opportunity to gain an important piece of art history, part icularly Southern California art history.

Crak!, c. 1963, offset lithograph. Mao, c. 1972, screenprint.

CONCLUSION Because of the reasons we have listed above, we believe Corita Kent’s serigraph print entitled news of the week, circa 1969, belongs in the permanent print collection at the University of San Diego. This work deals directly with Kent’s work as a an activist artist, an aspect of her oeuvre that is not represented at any other institution in San Diego, and only at the very large collections in Los Angeles. This work would carry significance for USD not only as a Catholic institution but as one dedicated to ethical conduct, service, changemaking, and academic collaboration. News of the week is applicable to academic departments and student organizations/centers all over campus and opens up opportunities to engage with a diverse group of students and community members. This work would greatly enhance the print collection at USD, adding a thought-provoking and distinct piece from a woman, activist, contemporary, Southern California, and historically important artist.

ROLES OF GROUP MEMBERS

Rose Guth: Student Acquisition Proposal Handout / Research on work and significance/ research on other works held in area Mina Krenz: Research on historical significance of work / literary analysis of Walt Whitman poem / organization of slide show Caroline Lienung: Research on historical significance of work / social justice and activist research Sam Mercer: Research on similar works in the area / on the market and similar pieces at auction / on slave ships and racial implications