Mary Corita (Sister Corita) Kent Art

Corita Kent (American, 1918 - 1986) "I Love You Very" watercolor and ink on paper Hand signed (not dated) Dimensions: 10 x 8 inches sight. Framed measures 12 x 15 inches Provenance: Marc Selwyn Fine Art, bears gallery label verso Corita Kent (November 20, 1918 – September 18, 1986), born Frances Elizabeth Kent and also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an American Roman Catholic religious sister, artist, and educator. She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen, also known as serigraphy, pushing back the limitations of the two-dimensional medium by the development of innovative methods. Kent's emphasis on printing was partially due to her wish for democratic outreach, as she wished for affordable art for the masses. Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s After a cancer diagnosis in the early 1970s, she entered an extremely prolific period in her career, including the Rainbow Swash design on the LNG storage tank in Boston, and the 1985 version of the United States Postal Service's special Love stamp. In recent years, Corita has gained increased recognition for her role in the pop art movement. Critics and theorists previously failed to count her work as part of any mainstream "canon," but in the last few years there has been a resurgence of attention given to Kent. As both a nun and a woman making art in the twentieth century, she was in many ways cast to the margins of the different movements she was a part of. According to Donna Steele, an exhibition’s curator, Kent’s work is “as important as that of Andy Warhol” to the Pop Art movement. “It stands up there with the work of the Pop Art greats – people like Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake. It’s big and bold and it’s of the moment.” Kent used advertising slogans and song lyrics, as well as biblical verses and quotes from literature, to create vibrant silkscreens with trenchant political messages about racism, poverty and injustice. “What you get is this visual feast of twisted text and messages, and the more you look, the deeper you realise the messages go,” says Steele. “She picked up on everyday language and advertising slogans – this was the 1960s, and consumer culture was exploding; she used words like ‘tomato’, ‘burger’ and ‘goodness’ and she made them into messages about how we live, and about humanitarianism and how we care for others.” She took classes at Otis (now Otis College of Art and Design) and Chouinard Art Institute and earned her BA from Immaculate Heart College in 1941. She earned her MA at the University of Southern California in Art History in 1951. Between 1938 and 1968 Kent lived and worked in the Immaculate Heart Community She taught in the Immaculate Heart College and became the chair of its art department in 1964. Her classes at Immaculate Heart were an avant-garde mecca for prominent, ground-breaking artists and inventors, such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Cage, Saul Bass, Buckminster Fuller and Charles & Ray Eames. Kent credited Charles Eames, Buckminster Fuller, and art historian Dr. Alois Schardt for their important roles in her intellectual and artistic growth. During this time, Kent’s work became increasingly political, addressing events such as the Vietnam War and humanitarian crises. For example, she was commissioned by the Physicians for Social Responsibility to create what she called “we can create life without war” billboards. Tensions between the order and church leadership were mounting, with the Los Angeles archdiocese criticizing the college as “liberal” and Cardinal James McIntyre labeling the college as “communist” and Kent’s work as “blasphemous.” Due to this, Kent returned to secular life in 1968 as Corita Kent. Most sisters followed suit and the Immaculate Heart College closed in 1980. In 1985, Kent’s design for a United States Postal Service Stamp is issued. She did not attend the unveiling because she wanted it to happen at the United Nations and was not happy with the message that was sent when the design was unveiled on the Love Boat. Her 1985 work "love is hard work" was made in response. The stamp itself sold successfully- over 700 million times She died on September 18, 1986 in Watertown Massachusetts at the age of sixty-seven. She left her copyrights and unsold works to the Immaculate Heart College Community Kent created several hundred serigraph designs, for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 United States Postal Service stamp Love and the 1971 Rainbow Swash, the largest copyrighted work of art in the world, covering a 150-foot (46 m) high natural gas tank in Boston. Kent was also commissioned to create work for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, and the 1965 IBM Christmas display in New York. Her 1951 print, The Lord is with Thee had won first prizes in printmaking at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, Art, and at the California State Fair Corita Kent worked at the intersection of several powerful and at times contradictory cultural, political, and religious influences. Corita Kent, inspired by the works of Andy Warhol, began using popular culture as raw material for her work in 1962. Her Pop art lithograph screen prints often incorporated the archetypical product of brands of American consumerism alongside spiritual texts. Her design process involved appropriating an original advertising graphic to suit her idea; for example, she would tear, rip, or crumble the image, then re-photograph it. She often used grocery store signage, texts from scripture, newspaper clippings, song lyrics, and writings from literary greats such as Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings, and Albert Camus as the textual focal point of her work. In her 1966 piece Tame It's Not, she uses quotes from Winnie the Pooh, Kierkegaard, and an ad slogan for men's cologne. One of Kent’s prints, love your brother (1969), depicts photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. overlaid with her handwritten words, “The king is dead. Love your brother”. Her work has been shown in top galleries and was included in the Marc Selwyn Gallery show Did I Ever Have a Chance? The exhibition featured works by Helène Aylon, Leilah Babirye, Jenny Holzer, Otis Houston, Jr., Corita Kent, Clifford Prince King, Reverend Joyce McDonald, Lorraine O'Grady, Martha Rosler...

Corita Kent (American, 1918 - 1986)"We Can Create Life without War" Corita Billboard Peace Project Poster 1985 Corita Billboard Event - Part of Peace Week, January 17-24, 1985 San Lu...

Mary (Sister Corita) Corita Kent We Can Create Life Without War (INV# NP4057) serigraph print image: 16 x 20" archive id: 84 -05 1984 signed edition of...

CORITA KENT (Sister Mary Corita) 1918–1986 BIRDS FLAMING INTO THE SUN, 1961 Color Serigraph, signed and and titled. Edition unknown.. Image 10 3/8 x 17 3/8 Inches. Full margins, she...

Original screen print on card stock by the well know pop artist, Sister Mary Corida Kent. Signed in pen lower right. Circa 1968. The quote used in the screen print are the words of the well known Jesuit priest, poet, playwright and anti-war Vietnam activist Daniel Berrigan who was a personal friend of the artist. Condition is very good. Some mild fading consistent with age. The artwork is housed in its original bleached wood 1960’s frame. Provenance: Forsythe Gallery, Inc. Ann Arbor Michigan. Biography from the Archives of askART Sister Mary Corita Kent, once the nation's best-known nun, won fame as a serigraph artist. Her bright, colorful silk-screen prints were the rage of the 1960s. She designed the United States' first "Love" postage stamp. Mary Corita Kent was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918, then moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1920. Two years later they moved to Los Angeles, where she grew up. She joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary there in 1938. She received her bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in 1941, followed by a master's in art history 10 years later from the University of Southern California. Popularly known as "Sister Mary Corita," she turned to the silk-screen process in 1950. Her large compositions combine quotations, often from the Bible or modern poetry, with religious or secular images. During her career as an artist and teacher, Kent also designed greeting cards and book covers. She achieved fame in the early 1960s with her brightly colored silkscreen posters. Some of her work includes excerpts from the writings of Carl Jung, e.e. cummings and Rainer Maria Rilke. She began adding words to her designs because, she said, "I have been nuts about words and their shape since I was very young." Sister Mary Corita became one of our country's most celebrated artists and gained international fame through her creative, magical use of color and words. As a muralist, her critically acclaimed 40-foot mural for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair also brought her worldwide attention. She taught at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, the art department of which, under her creative direction, established itself as a center for the art of learning as well as the learning of art. Buckminster Fuller described his visit to the department as "among the most fundamentally inspiring experiences of my life." As a teacher, she was known as a challenger, a free-thinker, a celebrator, an encourager. She taught her students that one of the most important rules, when looking at art or watching films, was never to allow yourself to blink. One might miss something extremely valuable. And what the students cherished most about her competence as a teacher was that she always made eye-contact with each individual, giving herself to each charge entirely. Perhaps becoming a celebrity came too soon for the nun. It was something she never asked to be, but she carried the burdens of stardom with grace, kindness, and loving warmth. She never was arrogant, and accepted the status because she believed it would help the College of the Immaculate Heart where she was teaching, and she thought it would be good for her community of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Corita became a symbol of the modern nun and was often the target of conservative Catholics, particularly when she turned to regular street dress...

Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986). Let the Whole World Keep Holiday, 1955. Serigraph on paper, image measures 15.75 x 21.75 inches; 24 x 29.5 inches framed. Signed and dated in pencil by artist, lower margin. Minor toning to page with no color fading. Sister Mary Corita Kent, once the nation's best-known nun, won fame as a serigraph artist. Her bright, colorful silk-screen prints were the rage of the 1960s. She designed the United States' first "Love" postage stamp. Mary Corita Kent was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918, then moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1920. Two years later they moved to Los Angeles, where she grew up. She joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary there in 1938. She received her bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in 1941, followed by a master's in art history 10 years later from the University of Southern California. Popularly known as "Sister Mary Corita," she turned to the silk-screen process in 1950. Her large compositions combine quotations, often from the Bible or modern poetry, with religious or secular images. During her career as an artist and teacher, Kent also designed greeting cards and book covers. She achieved fame in the early 1960s with her brightly colored silkscreen posters. Some of her work includes excerpts from the writings of Carl Jung, e.e. cummings and Rainer Maria Rilke. She began adding words to her designs because, she said, "I have been nuts about words and their shape since I was very young." Sister Mary Corita became one of our country's most celebrated artists and gained international fame through her creative, magical use of color and words. As a muralist, her critically acclaimed 40-foot mural for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair also brought her worldwide attention. She taught at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, the art department of which, under her creative direction, established itself as a center for the art of learning as well as the learning of art. Buckminster Fuller described his visit to the department as "among the most fundamentally inspiring experiences of my life." As a teacher, she was known as a challenger, a free-thinker, a celebrator, an encourager. She taught her students that one of the most important rules, when looking at art or watching films, was never to allow yourself to blink. One might miss something extremely valuable. And what the students cherished most about her competence as a teacher was that she always made eye-contact with each individual, giving herself to each charge entirely. Perhaps becoming a celebrity came too soon for the nun. It was something she never asked to be, but she carried the burdens of stardom with grace, kindness, and loving warmth. She never was arrogant, and accepted the status because she believed it would help the College of the Immaculate Heart where she was teaching, and she thought it would be good for her community of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Corita became a symbol of the modern nun and was often the target of conservative Catholics, particularly when she turned to regular street dress...

Sister Corita Kent Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life, 2976 Silkscreen on wove paper Edition of 200 Pencil signed on the front; unnumbered Held in vintage 1970s metal frame with Lois Burnett gallery stamp on the back Provenance: Lois Burnett Gallery, Melrose Place...

Sister Mary Corita Kent Celebration of the Ordinary screenprint on (Pellon) rice paper 30 x 40" edition of 50 1963 signed * Slight condition issues due t...

CORITA KENT (Sister Mary Corita) 1918–1986 PIGEONS FLYING, Color serigraph. Signed and titled in ink. Unnumbered. Image, 10 1/2 x 13 3/4. In generally good condition. Colors possibl...

Reference: Corita Art Center Catalog # 64.27 Edition: Unlimited, un-numbered

A contemporary of Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha, Corita Kent (aka Sister Mary Corita) created eye-popping screenprints and drawings that combined corporate logos with excerpts from some of the artist’s favorite writers, creating an intersection between religious euphoria and advertising hyperbole. A sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary...

A contemporary of Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha, Corita Kent (aka Sister Mary Corita) created eye-popping screenprints and drawings that combined corporate logos with excerpts from some of the artist’s favorite writers, creating an intersection between religious euphoria and advertising hyperbole. A sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary...