By Tom Wachunas
“…Want nothing small about men. Except maybe
their words, which should be modest and thoughtful and almost inaudible before
their DEEDS. For the rest, bigness; heart, brain; imagination too; let it take
the world in two hands and show us what it's like to BE! Tell us about it,
we're hungry. Doesn't the Bible call truth BREAD? We're starved, our smile has
lost out, we crawl around on a thin margin--a life, maybe, but what for? and
who wants it anyway? Where's the man who says yes, and says no, like a
thunderclap? Where's the man whose no turns to yes in his mouth--he can't deny
life, he asks like a new flower or a new day or a hero even; what more is there
to love than I have loved?” - text
by Daniel Berrigan, transcribed by Corita Kent into her 1965 serigraph series,
“Power Up”
EXHIBIT: Graphics by Corita Kent – designs from
1964-1968 / at The Malone Art Gallery, AUGUST 19 THROUGH OCTOBER 18, 2019 / located in the Johnson Center, on Malone
University campus at 2600 Cleveland Ave, N.W., in Canton, Ohio / Gallery hours
are Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reception:
September 14, 2:30-4 p.m
This thoughtfully
assembled collection of serigraphs (silk-screen prints) by Corita Kent, who was
originally named Frances Elizabeth Kent (1918-1986), comes to us from the
permanent collection of Thiel College, a private liberal arts institution
located in Greenville, Pennsylvania. At age 18, Corita Kent entered the
religious order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary where she took the name Sister
Mary Corita. I highly recommend that you click on one or both of the following
links to learn more about the life and work of this fascinating artist and
activist, who was a passionate advocate for social justice:
A central element
in Corita Kent’s oeuvre is the printed word in the form of framed posters. Her
expressions are playfully angled or inverted texts rendered in clashing day-glo
colors and varying scales and fonts, drawn from literary sources, Biblical
verses, and/or song lyrics of her day (such as Simon and Garfunkel’s “Slow
down, you move too fast,” from “Feelin’ Groovy”).They effectively evoke the splashy
zeitgeist of the cathartic 1960s in America.
Throughout Kent’s captivating designs is an
unmistakable family resemblance to Pop Art’s hard-edged, word-image aesthetic
as practiced by such artists as Robert Indiana, whose iconic 1965 print of the
word LOVE - with its stacked block letters and tilted ‘O’ - became an instant
classic. The exhibit also wisely cites an article by Alex Hass about the
influence of the Dada movement (originated in Zurich in 1916 as a cultural
reaction to World War I) on Kent’s design sensibilities. Here’s an excerpt: “…The
movement radically changed typographic ideals and created fresh approaches to
text. Unburdened of its rules and conventions, type was allowed to become
expressive and subjective. This movement in particular advanced typography as a
medium of its own. It promoted the use of typography as an art material that
could be manipulated by artists and designers expressively.”
On one level, Kent’s prints
exude a vivacity reminiscent of the bouncing signs and banners commonly seen at
protest rallies and street demonstrations of her era. Reading them brings to
mind those moments we’ve all experienced to one degree or another – moments when
we need to turn our heads just so, crane our necks and lean in to hear a
singular voice above the din of many.
Kent’s messages
aren’t overtly angry or venomous so much as they’re her heartfelt prompts to
consider something much larger than politics. There’s good news here, as in the
Good News of the Gospel and its call for compassion and promise of hope and
peace. These electrifying signs from her time still speak urgently to ours.
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