Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)

1. What it is — screenprint, 29.75 × 36 in, authored work from the IHC workshop. The slogan is for Del Monte tomato sauce; the secondary text is a long paragraph (signed „S Eisenstein" per the Corita Art Center transcript): „If we are provided with a sign that declares Del Monte tomatoes are juiciest it is not desecration to add: 'Mary Mother is the juiciest tomato of them all.'"
2. Composition — the word TOMATO is broken across two lines, TOM / ATO; the letters are white (uncovered paper), cut out of a red field. ATO is larger than TOM and sits on the lower half. Across the upper third runs a yellow diagonal band that cuts through TOM — a quote of the band on the Del Monte label. The eye enters on the yellow band, falls onto ATO, stops in the O. The lower left quadrant is orange and filled with small handwriting.
3. Colour — three colours on white: red, yellow, orange. All three are flat, no gradients, no black. Orange is the third colour between red and yellow — the handwriting field gets a tone that competes with neither. White is not a colour but the paper: the letters are holes.
4. Typography — a cut stencil grotesque modelled on the label; the typeface is not identified. The letters are not typographically clean: T is sans serif but with unequal arms, O is a circle. The handwriting is small, fast, in negative.
5. Message — at three seconds you read TOMATO, red-yellow, supermarket. From five metres it is an advertising poster. From half a metre a theological essay about the Virgin Mary in the language of advertising is revealed. The message works only in the second step — that is how it is meant to be read („Mary Mother is the juiciest tomato").
6. Why exactly this way — the screen allows only flat colours and a limited number of stencils; the handwritten text goes onto the screen with glue, so it must be white. The two reading speeds are a consequence of the technique, not just the concept.
7. What would kill it — if the word were not broken. The whole TOMATO in one line would be a sign; TOM / ATO is a form.

Principles: Slogan in a new context Two reading distances Hand gesture against the cut Flat colour reads at distance To verify against the image: the exact proportions of the yellow band; whether the orange field is printed over the red (overlap) or separate.

1. What it is — screenprint; Corita Art Center gives 30 × 38.75 in, Hammer 24 × 36 in (edition 50, CAC 64-24); dimensions differ by source. Wonder Bread packaging. Secondary texts: a statement by a Kentucky miner's wife („five children … crying for something to eat") and Gandhi: „so many hungry people that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."
2. Composition — a field of white circles (the dots from the Wonder Bread packaging) on a blue and red ground; across the middle, a red inscription ENRICHED BREAD in a wide grotesque. The circles run off the edges — the frame is a cutout of a larger surface, not the whole. The handwriting is in the lower left corner, within the red zones.
3. Colour — red, blue, white: the palette of the packaging, and thereby of the flag. The white circles are the paper. There is no third colour, no black.
4. Typography — a condensed/extended grotesque taken from the packaging (class; typeface not named).
5. Message — the circles are the dots from the bread bag and, at the same time, hosts. The title comes from John 10:10 („that they may have life"). The image shows neither communion nor hunger — the packaging itself becomes an analogy for both. From five metres you read a bread bag. From half a metre you read the miner's wife and Gandhi.
6. Why exactly this way — Pacem in Terris (1963) and the right to food (Dackerman): bread is the theme, the packaging is the only available „iconographic" language that the 1964 audience reads without having to learn it.
7. What would kill it — a drawn host or chalice. The moment a religious icon is added, the analogy turns into illustration and all the force leaks out.

Principles: Analogy instead of illustration Slogan in a new context Two reading distances To verify against the image: the arrangement of red and blue zones is not confirmed against the image (in the screenshot: blue above, red below the inscription and to the left).

1. What it is — screenprint on nonwoven synthetic fabric (SFMOMA: „nonwoven synthetic fabric" — Pellon), 29.75 × 36.25 in. Wonder Bread logotype transferred by photo-stencil (Dackerman). Secondary text: Camus („Great ideas … come into the world as gently as doves") and text from the bag („Help build strong bodies 12 ways / Standard large loaf / no preservatives added").
2. Composition — four horizontal zones: at top blue with red ENRICHED BREAD (small) and WONDER (huge, fills the width), below it a red zone with packaging text in negative, bottom yellow, empty. The Camus passage is in negative, in two columns within the blue zone, around the letters WONDER. Eye path: WONDER → red zone → yellow empty band as ground.
3. Colour — blue, red, yellow: primaries, because they're primary on the bag. The empty yellow bottom is the boldest move — a third of the format left as colour.
4. Typography — logotype in bold, photo-stencil (class: bold grotesque); primary text positive, secondary handwriting white (Dackerman: „Primary text printed as positive image; handwritten secondary text rendered white").
5. Message — WONDER reads first as a word, not as a brand — a "wonder" in the blue of the Virgin. "Enriched bread" becomes eucharistic. From five metres: an ad; from half a metre: Camus on hope. The Camus heading and the packaging heading stand equally large in handwriting — parity of sources is part of the message.
6. Why exactly this way — Pellon allows large formats and cheap workshop printing; the photo-stencil transfers the logotype without drawing. Constraint: number of screens — three colours, three passes.
7. What would kill it — filling in the yellow band. Or setting the secondary text typographically instead of by hand — then it would be a footnote, not a voice.

Principles: Slogan in a new context Two reading distances Hand gesture against the cut Cheap technique as language To verify against the image: the registration shift between red and blue is not confirmed.

1. What it is — screenprint, 29.75 × 39.25 in. Text: „Mary does laugh; and she sings and runs and wears bright orange today she'd probably do her shopping at the Market Basket." Eye: the central fragment refers to the Market Basket supermarket — source of material and inspiration.
2. Composition — the whole surface is covered with cropped bold letters from the MARKET BASKET sign (fragments MARKE / TOMA / BASKET), black and dark green, cut by the edges of the format so the word cannot be assembled. Over this, in the centre, red cursive handwriting „Mar / Bas" (possibly „Mary" — not confirmed) in two lines, and an orange horizontal band with handwriting in negative over the top line. The eye: red word → orange band → background fragments.
3. Colour — black and green as background „noise", red and orange as signal. Red and orange are adjacent, so they do not clash; red over green is a complementary collision that pushes the word forward.
4. Typography — a bold grotesque from the supermarket sign (class; photo-stencil), cropped to the edge of legibility; cursive brush handwriting as the opposite register.
5. Message — the Virgin Mary laughing and shopping at the supermarket. From five metres: sound of letters, colour, nothing legible. From half a metre: the sentence in the band.
6. Why exactly this way — whether MARKET BASKET is recognised or not is not important; what matters is that the letters take on the role of an abstract field (Johns, False Start — Dackerman documents her slides of this work from 1965).
7. What would kill it — a legible MARKET BASKET sign in the background. Then it would be an ad with graffiti over it.

Principles: Legibility at the edge Slogan in a new context Hand gesture against the cut To verify against the image: exactly what the red handwriting says („Mar / Bas"); the arrangement of the background fragments.

1. What it is — screenprint on nonwoven synthetic, 30 × 36 in. Four texts: „get with the action" (Chevrolet, after Dackerman/Eye — a dealer's ad), „wine that rejoyces man's heart" (Psalm 104), „powerful enough to make a difference", „for emergency use soft shoulder" (traffic sign). SFMOMA exhibited it in 2016 in Get With the Action: Political Posters.
2. Composition — GET WITH THE / ACTION in blue bold grotesque, upright, in three lines, fills the upper two-thirds; letters are cut by the edge (G, N). Upper right, yellow text rotated 180° and mirrored (legible only by turning). Bottom: red band with white handwriting „powerful enough to make a difference"; lower right white letters SOFT SHOULDER rotated 90°. The eye moves: blue → red → only then does the head turn.
3. Colour — blue, yellow, red on white; one red letter E in ACTION is printed red instead of blue — a single accent that breaks the monolith of the word. Eye describes the colours as „bright, nearly fluorescent inks with complementary colours".
4. Typography — bold grotesque from the ad, photo-stencil; handwriting; no typographically „composed" text.
5. Message — the car salesman's command („get with the action") becomes a call to action, religious and political; the Psalm and the sign „soft shoulder — for emergencies" become the same level of authority. From five metres: a poster that gives orders. From half a metre: a prayer.
6. Why exactly this way — hierarchy isn't made by size but by direction: upright = primary, rotated = secondary, mirrored = tertiary. This is a cheap screen trick (turn the stencil) that replaces three type sizes.
7. What would kill it — all text upright. The piece would become a list.

Principles: Reading direction as hierarchy Slogan in a new context Hand gesture against the cut To verify against the image: which letter exactly is red; whether the yellow text is mirrored or just turned.

1. What it is — screenprint, 30 × 36 in. Text: „Give the gang our best — Now". Canada Dry slogan. This sheet (66-16) carries only the slogan and NOW! — it is not the same as the diptych (give the gang) the clue is in the signs / (our best) reality proves very little (1966), with Berrigan, Seeger, a yellow band and a blue circle.
2. Composition — the slogan in distorted black grotesque (a photographed crumpled ad), rotated 90° so it reads bottom to top, in four „columns" over irregular yellow fields on white. Across the bottom, red NOW! in cut handwriting, upright, the only thing legible without turning. The eye: NOW! → yellow fields → only then do you turn your head and read the slogan.
3. Colour — yellow fields as irregular plates (not following the letters), black letters, red NOW!. The yellow doesn't „colour" the letters but sits behind them as a separate layer — it's clearly visible that these are two screens.
4. Typography — bold grotesque from the ad distorted by photographing crumpled paper; handwriting.
5. Message — the only upright word is NOW. Everything the ad offers („our best") is background for urgency. From five metres: NOW!. From half a metre: the rotated slogan.
6. Why exactly this way — the distortion of the letters isn't an effect but a consequence of the method (crumpled ad → photograph → stencil). The yellow fields are, by all appearances, cut pieces of paper, not drawn shapes.
7. What would kill it — aligning the yellow fields with the letters. Then it would be a neat two-colour sign.

Principles: Reading direction as hierarchy Legibility at the edge Slogan in a new context To verify against the image: whether NOW! is cut from paper or brush-drawn; the relation to the diptych (which was made earlier).

1. What it is — screenprint, 23 × 35 in. Texts: „HANDLE WITH CARE!", Chevrolet „SEE THE MAN WHO CAN SAVE YOU THE MOST", „there is only one man", e. e. cummings („i met Christ Jesus my heart flopped over…"). Dackerman links the car salesman as saviour in a 1960s suit — the dealer's slogan becomes a spiritual commandment.
2. Composition — orange ground, green oval „balloon" over the centre (like a „handle with care" sticker), and over everything two layers of red text: HANDLE WITH CARE diagonally in a thinner grotesque, and SEE THE MAN WHO CAN SAVE YOU THE MOST large, in five lines, upright. cummings' handwriting small, white, left inside the oval. The eye: red block → oval → handwriting.
3. Colour — orange, green, red. Red over green gives a darker, muddy tone at the overlap; red over orange nearly disappears — the text reads only where it lies on green. The green oval zone is a „reflector" that decides which words are seen: colour does the framing.
4. Typography — two bold grotesques overlapping (class); handwriting.
5. Message — two large commands overlaid so that both can't be read at once: the viewer must choose which to read — that is the message. From five metres: a red scream on green. From half a metre: cummings on meeting Christ.
6. Why exactly this way — two screens of the same colour over different grounds: one pass of red, and two legibilities. It saves a screen and makes meaning.
7. What would kill it — separating the two texts so they don't overlap. Then they're two slogans, not a conflict.

Principles: Slogan in a new context Two reading distances Overlap gives a third colour To verify against the image: the actual colour at the red/green overlap is not confirmed; whether the orange is a frame or the whole ground remains open.

1. What it is — screenprint, 22.5 × 11.5 in, upright narrow format; from the series heroes and sheroes (Boston, 1969). Text per transcript: ASSASSINATION / AMERICANICAN / VIETMANIAMIA / VIOLENCEIVIOLA / VIETNAMIMVIET / ASSASSINATION / AMERICANICAN / WHYWHYNOTVV.
2. Composition — eight rows of wooden type, filling to both edges, no margins left or right; the top quarter of the sheet is blank (signature). No image. The rows aren't aligned — each begins with a word and continues by repeating a syllable until the row is full (AMERICAN-ICAN, WHY-WHY-NOT). The eye reads from the top, then stalls.
3. Colour — blue, red and brown; the palette of the flag (Frieze). It is not confirmed whether blue is printed over red. Key: the colour changes mid-word. ASSASS|INATION, AMER|ICAN — the colour break pulls SIN and NATION out of ASSASSINATION (Frieze, explicitly).
4. Typography — wooden type of the 19th-century wanted-poster kind, with visible irregular impression — the look of letterpress, even though it's screen. The letterform classification isn't named (Frieze).
5. Message — a „sampler" is embroidery with patterns, so this is also a pattern of America in 1968: assassinations, Vietnam, violence. From five metres you read a red-blue block, a flag. From half a metre the words break apart into other words.
6. Why exactly this way — after 1968 there's no more handwriting or supermarket: only the word and colour. Closest to Indiana's LOVE — reduction to the word as a reformist move (Dackerman).
7. What would kill it — single-colour words. Without the colour break, SIN and NATION disappear and only a list remains.

Principles: Colour splits the word Flat colour reads at distance To verify against the image: the exact colour layout per line; whether brown is a third colour or an overlap.

1. What it is — screenprint, 31.5 × 23.625 in (Hammer: 35 × 23 in, edition 150). Text: e. e. cummings, „be of love (a little) more careful than of everything". The work was made before the 1964 turn. It shows what was then discarded.
2. Composition — upright format, three zones. At top a dark grey/blue zone with orange trees and figures resembling candlesticks, with green and purple patches. The middle is an orange band with handwriting. The bottom is a brown zone with two orange arches. Everything is painted with a brush, no edge is straight.
3. Colour — seven to eight colours, dense, oil-like: orange, green, purple, turquoise, yellow, grey, brown. The palette of abstract expressionism (Eye: „richly colored, painterly prints").
4. Typography — only brush handwriting, small, in a band. No other lettering.
5. Message — the poetic quote is the title; the image carries the mood. From five metres it reads as a colourful picture. From half a metre you read cummings. It works as a painting, not as a poster.
6. Why exactly this way — here the screen is used as painting, with hand-drawn stencils. This is the end of a road that Corita abandoned between 1962 and 1964: too many colours, too much hand, no single word big enough.
7. What would kill it — nothing in particular, the same thing that would kill any painting. That's why it's weak as design: there's no single change that brings it down, because there's no single decision holding it up.

Principles: Hand gesture against the cut (here without the cut — the negative of the principle: gesture without an opposing register doesn't work). To verify against the image: what exactly the orange figures at the top depict, trees or candlesticks. The dimension discrepancy between the CAC and the Hammer is unresolved.