Corita Kent
pieta 1969, 1969
silkscreen on paper
57,2 x 29,2 cm / 22.5 x 11.5 in (unframed)
66 x 37,5 x 4 cm / 26 x 14.7 x 1.5 in (framed)
66 x 37,5 x 4 cm / 26 x 14.7 x 1.5 in (framed)
Transcribed text:
We shall know him not with useless mourning and vain regrets for the past, but with the
firm and indomitable resolutions for the future: acting now to relieve the starvation of
people in this country, working now to aid the disadvantaged and those helpless, inarticulate
masses for whom he worked long hours, night as well as day.
Rose Kennedy
...It's me again. I've learned a really great thing. It's something you told me before
but I couldn't really feel that way then. But tonight I was listening to Sen. Kennedy's
mother on TV and she was talking about her son's love of living but it was in such a great
human way, so unpretentious that it helped me see that one of the great qualities of the
Kennedy's was that they were so reachable. In the middle of destruction was this great
creative force always there and always an honest statement of a really human responsive
entity who wasn't hiding behind a bureaucracy or a static position. Then I started thinking
about how many times I walk around and people talk to me but I am not there. I'm not
honestly responding. I want to try to develop some of the Kennedy quality. It is so easy
to fall apart when surrounded by destruction. Now I can see what you meant when you said
we have to create. It's the only thing we can do. I read a book, The Spinster by Sylvia
Baton Warner. You're probably familiar with it. What impressed me so much about it was
that Sylvia helped the children find channels to express their aggressions in a creative
rather than a destructive way. That's what we have to do. We have to revolutionize the
dead lump called the present educational system from Dick & Jane into an alive process
not a product...And help other people learn to be creative rather than destructive. With
this we could change the world. One person can do a lot. Two people can do even more.
Since I listened to Mrs. Kennedy I have faith. This is the first time for many years that
I really do have faith. Now when I consider and feel what have been mere words that once
seemed idiotically ideal and illusory---faith, hope and charity---these words become my
essence. They become the whole. When life is so absurd you have to make a choice about
living---Yes or no---and if it's no then end your life but if it is yes throw yourself
right into it and say yes to every second and yes to any one second is yes to the whole
of existence. This is what you and Mrs. Kennedy have helped me learn.
Love, (a student)
Transcribed text:
We shall know him not with useless mourning and vain regrets for the past, but with the
firm and indomitable resolutions for the future: acting now to relieve the starvation of
people in this country, working now to aid the disadvantaged and those helpless, inarticulate
masses for whom he worked long hours, night as well as day.
Rose Kennedy
...It's me again. I've learned a really great thing. It's something you told me before
but I couldn't really feel that way then. But tonight I was listening to Sen. Kennedy's
mother on TV and she was talking about her son's love of living but it was in such a great
human way, so unpretentious that it helped me see that one of the great qualities of the
Kennedy's was that they were so reachable. In the middle of destruction was this great
creative force always there and always an honest statement of a really human responsive
entity who wasn't hiding behind a bureaucracy or a static position. Then I started thinking
about how many times I walk around and people talk to me but I am not there. I'm not
honestly responding. I want to try to develop some of the Kennedy quality. It is so easy
to fall apart when surrounded by destruction. Now I can see what you meant when you said
we have to create. It's the only thing we can do. I read a book, The Spinster by Sylvia
Baton Warner. You're probably familiar with it. What impressed me so much about it was
that Sylvia helped the children find channels to express their aggressions in a creative
rather than a destructive way. That's what we have to do. We have to revolutionize the
dead lump called the present educational system from Dick & Jane into an alive process
not a product...And help other people learn to be creative rather than destructive. With
this we could change the world. One person can do a lot. Two people can do even more.
Since I listened to Mrs. Kennedy I have faith. This is the first time for many years that
I really do have faith. Now when I consider and feel what have been mere words that once
seemed idiotically ideal and illusory---faith, hope and charity---these words become my
essence. They become the whole. When life is so absurd you have to make a choice about
living---Yes or no---and if it's no then end your life but if it is yes throw yourself
right into it and say yes to every second and yes to any one second is yes to the whole
of existence. This is what you and Mrs. Kennedy have helped me learn.
Love, (a student)