{"id":7022,"date":"2023-08-31T13:42:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T20:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/?page_id=7022"},"modified":"2023-08-31T13:42:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T20:42:54","slug":"somebody-had-to-break-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/the-poster-project\/somebody-had-to-break-the-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"somebody had to break the rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Corita
Corita Kent\nsomebody had to break the rules, 1967\nColor screenprint on Pellon\n29 7\/8 x 36 1\/16 inches\nMuseum Purchase: Print Acquisition Fund\n\u00a9 Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA\n2016.89.1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Download poster (English)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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View somebody had to break the rules <\/em>in our permanent collection<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Corita Kent was an important artist, teacher, and advocate for social justice who gained international fame in the 1960s for her vibrant, revolutionary screenprints. Born Frances Elizabeth Kent in Iowa in 1918, Kent moved with her family to Hollywood in 1923. She joined the Immaculate Heart of Mary order at age 18, taking the name Sister Mary Corita. Kent earned her undergraduate degree at the Immaculate Heart College in 1941 and became a professor of art there in 1947.  She was a demanding and highly creative teacher who constantly challenged her students to look deeply at the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to teaching art classes, Kent organized \u201chappenings\u201d and lectured and traveled widely, all while producing nearly 700 screenprints over the course of her artistic career. She believed deeply in reform\u2014of the Catholic Church, of society, and of politics\u2014and used her art to engage viewers in her radical message of hope and love. Her playful, witty, and inventive Pop art of the 1960s brought Kent international renown; in 1967, she graced the cover of Newsweek <\/em>magazine under the headline, \u201cThe Nun: Going Modern.\u201d In 1968, at the height of her fame, she left Los Angeles and the Immaculate Heart order to live a secular life in Boston and begin a new chapter of her art and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This print dates from the height of Kent\u2019s career, when she was deeply engaged with the world surrounding her. She soaked up the chaotic visual landscape of Los Angeles, believing that, in her words, \u201ceverything is sacred\u201d and, therefore, worthy of examination. She appropriated commercial jingles, street signs, and supermarket advertisements and mixed them with scripture, poetry, and song lyrics. She bent, altered, and inverted text, breaking the established rules of design to such an extent that fellow artist Ben Shahn dubbed her a \u201cjoyous revolutionary.\u201d Her work continues to inspire generations of graphic artists and designers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this work, Kent combined and subverted the traffic signs of freeway culture, unmooring them from their traditional, directional role. Here a red arrow embellished with a poem by Robert Frost competes with reversed signage for a service entrance. Meanwhile, the sliced-up slogan of Dash dishwashing liquid\u2014\u201cSomebody had to break the rules\u201d\u2014could stand for Kent\u2019s own artistic manifesto for experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Corita Kent responded to the world around her by repurposing signs, images, and slogans as art. In this print, she borrows and reverses the words \u201cservice entrance\u201d and lifts a slogan from Dash dishwashing liquid ads (\u201cSomebody had to break the rules\u201d). How do the meanings of these phrases change when Kent incorporates them into her composition? Does her art prompt you to think differently about the advertisement or sign? In what ways?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Kent also incorporated noncommercial, literary sources into her art. Here, she reproduces Robert Frost\u2019s 1928 poem \u201cThe Rose Family\u201d over a red arrow. What is the meaning of this poem? Compare the first two lines to the last two. How is Frost playing with essence and metaphor here? How do Frost\u2019s lines interact with the other phrases in Kent\u2019s print?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The rose is a rose,
    And was always a rose.
    But the theory now goes
    That the apple\u2019s a rose,
    And the pear is, and so\u2019s
    The plum, I suppose.
    The dear only knows
    What will next prove a rose.
    You, of course, are a rose\u2014
    But were always a rose.\u00a0
    \u2014Robert Frost, \u201cThe Rose Family.\u201d In West-Running Brook. New York: Henry Holt, 1928.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The following activities are adapted from\u00a0Corita Kent and Jan Steward,\u00a0Learning by Heart: Teaching to Free the Creative Spirit<\/em>, second edition. New York: Allworth Press, 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Activity 1:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Look at a magazine in many ways\u2014one way at a time\u2014and write three lines about each point of view. Choose from the list below. You can select as many ways of looking as you have time for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n