Corita Kent
Encyclopedia
Corita Kent aka Sister Mary Corita Kent, was born Frances Elizabeth Kent in Fort Dodge, Iowa
. Kent was an artist and an educator who worked in Los Angeles
and Boston
. She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen and serigraphy, helping to establish it as a fine art medium. Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Kent designed the 1985 annual "love" stamp
.
After high school, Kent entered the Roman Catholic order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
in Los Angeles. 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 was the chairman of its art department. She left the order in 1968 and moved to Boston, where she devoted herself to making art. She died of cancer in 1986.
Kent created several hundred serigraph designs, for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 Love Stamp and Rainbow Swash
, the 150 feet (45.7 m)-high natural gas tank in the Dorchester
neighborhood of Boston.
Fort Dodge, Iowa
Fort Dodge is a city and county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 25,206 in the 2010 census, an increase from 25,136 in the 2000 census. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Central and Northwest Iowa. It is located on U.S...
. Kent was an artist and an educator who worked in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen and serigraphy, helping to establish it as a fine art medium. Her artwork, with its messages of love and peace, was particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Kent designed the 1985 annual "love" stamp
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
.
After high school, Kent entered the Roman Catholic order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a Catholic teaching order for women...
in Los Angeles. She took classes at Otis (now Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
) and Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
and earned her BA from Immaculate Heart College
Immaculate Heart College
Immaculate Heart College was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California.The college was established in 1916 by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ten years after they had founded Immaculate Heart High School on the property....
in 1941. She earned her MA at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
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
Immaculate Heart College
Immaculate Heart College was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California.The college was established in 1916 by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ten years after they had founded Immaculate Heart High School on the property....
and was the chairman of its art department. She left the order in 1968 and moved to Boston, where she devoted herself to making art. She died of cancer in 1986.
Kent created several hundred serigraph designs, for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 Love Stamp and Rainbow Swash
Rainbow Swash
The Rainbow Swash is a work by Corita Kent in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The rainbow design painted on a tall LNG storage tank is the largest copyrighted work of art in the world...
, the 150 feet (45.7 m)-high natural gas tank in the Dorchester
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
neighborhood of Boston.
Partial list of publications
- 1967 Footnotes and Headlines: A Play-Pray Book, Sister Corita
- 1968 To Believe in God, poem by Joseph Pintauro, color by Sister Corita
- 1969 city, uncity, poems by Gerald Huckaby, pages by Corita Kent
- 1970 Damn Everything but the Circus, Corita Kent
- 1992 Learning By Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit, Corita Kent (posthumously) and Jan Steward
- 2000 "Life Stories of Artist Corita Kent (1918–1986): Her Spirit, Her Art, the Woman Within" (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Gonzaga University), Barbara Loste
- EyeEye (magazine)Eye Magazine, The International Review of Graphic Design is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture.- History :...
, No. 35, Vol. 9, edited by John L. Walters, Quantum Publishing, 2000. - 2006 Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita, Julie AultJulie AultJulie Ault works as an artist, curator, and editor, and has been one of the cofounders of , a New York-based artists collaborative that has produced over fifty exhibitions and public projects exploring relationships between politics and aesthetics....
External links
- Corita Art Center
- Controversy over whether the Boston gas tank painting contains the profile of Ho Chi Minh
- Publishers of new study of Corita's work
- Sister Corita, Weekend AmericaWeekend AmericaWeekend America was a weekly public radio program dealing with news, popular culture, the arts and more. The program was produced for American Public Media and hosted by John Moe in Saint Paul, Minnesota....
on NPR, March 3, 2007. Includes a gallery with numerous photos of her and of her work.