Corita Kent to the everyday miracle

early work

Corita began producing her first serigraphs in the early 1950s. Influenced by the medieval art she was studying while obtaining a master's degree at the University of Southern California, her first prints consisted of dense, multi-layered compositions featuring religious themes and iconography.

the emergence of pop

Corita’s interests would continue to reflect a more diverse group of influences that included philosophy, politics, and popular culture. come alive (1967) is an archetypal example of Corita's singular take on Pop Art. Reinterpreting Pepsi’s catchphrase, “Come Alive!” as a spiritual and religious affirmation rather than merely an ad slogan, she uniquely emphasizes the polyvalent nature of language.

"If we separate ourselves from the great arts of our time, we cannot be leaven enriching our society from within."
-Corita Kent

the '60s

Throughout the '60s, Corita's work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and social injustice. Reproducing a manipulated New York Times headline, stop the bombing (1967) reflects both America's anti-war sentiments and widespread social unrest but also reveals Corita's sensitivity to the increasing presence and influence of mass media.

"She merely steps outside the rules and does her dance.  But she is not frivolous, except to those who see life as a problem.  She introduces the intuitive, the unpredictable into religion, and thereby threatens the essentially masculine, terribly efficient, chancery-ridden, law-abiding, file-cabinet church." 

- Jesuit priest and poet Daniel Berrigan in the "Newsweek" article featuring Corita from December 1967

heroes and sheroes

In the summer of 1968, exhausted from growing conflict with the archdiocese and a demanding schedule of exhibiting, teaching, and lecturing around the country, Corita takes a much needed sabbatical in Boston. At the end of the summer, she would officially seek dispensation from her vows. During this time, she would also produce her heroes and sheroes, a series of works that most explicitly reflects the decade's social and political movements, addressing topics such as labor and civil rights, nuclear disarmament, and political assassinations.

shell writings

late works

Corita remained active in social causes throughout her life. She continued to produce works that paired her messages of hope and joy with calls to advocate against oppression and inequality.

"I earn enough to support myself, and in a very small way groups I believe in.

I'm not a marcher. I admire people who march. I admire people who go to jail.

I don't have the guts to do that, so I do what I can. So I think, 'Well, I've got my job.'

The world is worth saving, and individual effort is what helps save it... I think the spiritual energy that

comes out of that effort is what keeps us from blowing up.

That's power. That's real strength."

 - Corita Kent, interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1985

watercolors

During the 70s and 80s, Corita also maintained an active watercolor practice, returning to the painterly gesture and embracing a more intimate and personal mode of artmaking. These watercolors would form the foundational imagery for many of her late prints and public commissions. 

museum exhibtions

Corita Kent’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions over the past five decades. Recent solo shows include: Joyful Revolutionary, Taxispalais Kunsthalle, Tirol, Innsbruck (2020); Corita Kent: Get With The Action, Ditchling Museum of Art+Craft, Ditchling, UK (2019); Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent, Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY (2013), Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2014), Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2014), Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena (2015); Yes People Like Us: Prints from the 1960s by Sister Corita, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2007). Notable group exhibitions include: She-Bam Pow Pop Wizz!, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nice, France (2020-21); Some Day is Now: Women, Art & Social Change, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT (2020-2021); Danh Vo Presents The Nivaagaard Collection, The Nivaagaard Collection, Niva, Denmark (2020); Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. (2019), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (2020); Corita Kent and the Language of Pop, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (2015), San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio (2016); Power Up: Sister Corita and Donald Moffett, Interlocking, Hammer Museum (2000)

Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and many others.

Images courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles, corita.org.

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click here to register for "Corita Kent: Dieter Roelstraete and Olivian Cha in conversation", Saturday, April 10th at 7pm CET / 1pm EST