Corita Kent WriteUp

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, particularly 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

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