but the

Artist Corita Kent (American, 1918 - 1986)

Printer Harry Hambly (Hambly Studios, Santa Clara, CA)

Titles

but the from circus alphabet

Date1968

Mediumscreenprint

DimensionsSheet: 23 × 23 in. (58.4 × 58.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Robert Cugno and Robert Logan

CultureAmerican

Inscribed68-69-29

Portfoliocircus alphabet

Catalogue raisonnéCAC 68-29

Object numberPC2017.11.11

ClassificationsPrint Collection

Description"BUT THE" written in brown and green letters on a rust orange background. Nikos Kazantzakis quote "the letters of the alphabet frighten me terribly" from "I had taken up my quill to begin writing" written sideways on the vertical ends of the image.
Interpretations Alphabets and Wordplay Corita created two series of “alphabet” prints in 1968. This print belongs to the second. Known as the “circus alphabet,” the four-part prelude to the series, damn / everything / but the / circus, is a line taken from e.e. cummings and, like the poet, Corita engages in wordplay. Words within words—D(AM)N, E(VERY)TH(IN)G—invite alternate readings. The overall aesthetic is suggestive of 19th century printed broadsides, with block letters and elements lifted from a typesetter’s case. Pictures and text were similarly borrowed from diverse sources such as the Ringling Museum of the Circus. She incorporated bright colors into the whole series as well as a deliberate subtext: “footnotes” of quotes and passages written in her own hand. E eye love (PC2017.11.30), for instance, includes the block letter “E” printed in green over the illustration of an eye, which doubles for the “I” in the quote from Albert Camus, “[I/eye] should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.” -Erin Maynes, Hoehn Curatorial Fellow for Prints, 2014-17

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