The Immaculate Heart of Mary, the congregation of nuns that Corita Kent (1918–1986) joined at the age of eighteen, is a “teaching order.” So Sister Mary Corita used her gift as an artist to express her spiritual commitments and fulfill her responsibility to educate. Evolving from intricately layered religious images, Kent’s prints would come to incorporate commercial images and song lyrics alongside biblical quotations and literary references, putting the graphic immediacy of Pop Art to the service of social justice.
These serigraphs are typical of the increasingly political work she made during the turbulent 1960s, which often asked her audiences to reflect on the causes of violence and division. Made on either side of her decision to leave the sisterhood in 1968, the inscriptions on these works give clues to Corita Kent’s mission as an educator and an artist. From pieta 1969, for instance: “We have to […] help other people learn to be creative rather than destructive. With this we could change the world.”
Corita Kent, green fingers, 1969. serigraph. 58 × 29 cm (62 × 35 × 2 cm framed)
Corita Kent, heart of the arrow, 1969. serigraph. 58 × 23 cm (62 × 35 × 2 cm framed)
Corita Kent, pieta 1969, 1969. serigraph. 57 × 29 cm (62 × 35 × 2 cm framed)
Corita Kent, time, 1965. serigraph. 67 × 24 cm (62 × 35 × 2 cm framed)
Corita Kent, just to live is holy, 1965. serigraph. 33 × 22 cm (62 × 35 × 2 cm framed)
