Kent State, 1970.
Image 26 x 34 in. / 67 x 87 cm
Paper 28.7 x 40.2 in. / 73 x 102 cm
13 color screen print on Schoeller-Durex paper. Edition 5000 + 50 proofs. “For Paul and Ianthe” written lower left in pencil, signed by the artist lower right in pencil. Printer: Dietz Offizin, Lengmoos, Bavaria. Published by Dorothea Leonhart, Munich. There are two complete series of 14 state prints each; one set is owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the other is owned by the artist’s estate.
Richard Hamilton describes the genesis and printing of Kent State: “It had been on my mind that there might be a subject staring me in the face from the TV screen. I set up a camera in front of the TV for a week. Every night I sat watching with a shutter release in my hand. If something interesting happened I snapped it up. During that week in May 1970, many possibilities emerged, from the Black and White Minstrel Show to Match of the Day; I also had a good many news items. In the middle of the week the shooting of students by National Guardsmen occurred at Kent State University. This tragic event produced the most powerful images that emerged from the camera, yet I felt a reluctance to use any of them. It was too terrible an incident in American history to submit to arty treatment. Yet there it was in my hand, by chance - I didn't really choose the subject, it offered itself. It seemed right, too, that art could help to keep the shame in our minds; the wide distribution of a large edition print might be the strongest indictment I could make.
Kent State is the most onerous of all the prints I have made. Without anticipating the problems, I chose to layer many transparent colours over each other to build the image from the overlaps and fringes. It was an absurd procedure. The more layers of pigment the longer the drying time - it didn't take long to discover that we were manufacturing gigantic fly papers. Every small insect trapped caused an accumulation of ink with each additional colour. For an edition of five thousand we started with six thousand sheets of paper. We just about made the edition; two proofing runs, two edition runs of fifteen printings, seven trips to Munich from London. I'm glad I tried it, but that kind of big edition has to be a once in a lifetime experience.
The Kent State student depicted, Dean Kahler, was not killed. He suffered spinal injuries and is paralysed. The text that I originally wrote for the subject avoids any mention of the horrible circumstances of that day in May. It coolly describes the passage of information. From the actual fact of a young man struck down by the bullets of amateur guardsmen to the eventual representation in a print, all the transformations of energy, listed remorselessly like a modern version of the tale of Paul Revere. It seems far more menacing than a sentimental registering of personal disgust (Hamilton [1982], pp.92-4).
Condition: Horizontal rippling in the paper throughout. Various spots of discoloration along left edge, lower edge, and right edge. Horizontal crease all along upper edge. ¾” by 1/16” marks all around edges of verso. See photographs.
