Corita Kent - "e eye love (from circus alphabet)" Pop Art line drawing of an eye and quote over a large green letter "E" and red background

Corita Kent • American (1918-1986)

e eye love (from circus alphabet) • Serigraph (silk screen printing) 22.75 x 22.75”

Once upon a time in Los Angeles, nuns wearing black and white habits, armed with guitars and surrounded by brightly dressed women carrying signs and dancing in the sunlight led the Mary’s Day Parade. If you think this was a scene from the movie Sister Act, you’d be wrong, but not far off-base. Because, there really was a time when socially-conscious nuns knocked down the medieval walls separating church and stasis.

When Immaculate Heart School first asked Sister Mary Corita to lead their annual Mary’s Day parade she changed it from a suffocatingly serious liturgy into a joyful and expressive parade complete with handmade flags and cardboard signs.¹ Sister Corita was like a can of brightly colored paint spilled on the somber, well-worn nave floor. People knew she was there, although she was uncommonly shy.

This nun used art to express her love of God, life, teaching and social activism, though not always in that order. This put her at odds with Cardinal James McIntyre who couldn’t fathom her exuberance, her popularity and her messages of peace and love. To him church was a place of sobriety and hide-bound tradition. To Sister Corita and her merry band of Immaculate Heart nuns church was a place to joyfully connect with the world around them. The Archdiocese and the nuns were on a collision course and the nuns were bringing peace signs to a knife fight. Eventually they all left the church.

As a lay person, Sister Corita became Corita Kent, combining her religious and birth names as she settled in Boston for the last 15 years of her life. The 1960s and 70s were a time of social upheaval and Corita Kent was often on the front lines, marching with friends like Father Daniel Berrigan and Martin Luther King. But she never stopped making art. It was her way of building community, expressing ideas and making everyday, ordinary things into the extraordinary.

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She took elements of Wonder Bread packaging and juxtaposed them with a Gandhi quote: “There are so many hungry people.”

She added circus imagery to a series of prints built around all the letters of the alphabet.

She turned a huge natural gas storage tank into such a joyous work of art that the residents of Dorchester forced Boston Gas to recreate her “Rainbow Swash” graphic when they replaced the old tank with a newer version.

Corita Kent was the “Pop Art Nun” who appeared on the cover of Newsweek Magazine and was named a 1967 Woman Of The Year by the Los Angeles Times. It was all heady stuff for a shy Iowa farm girl who entered the nunnery at age 18 and emerged 32 years later as the most socially conscious Pop artist in history.

The day she walked her students into the Ferus Gallery to see an Andy Warhol exhibit was the day Sister Corita’s life changed. But, it’s what she did next that showed how much her life had been converted. She took the young women in her class across the street to the Market Basket grocery store. There they cut small squares into the center of blank sheets of paper and roamed the aisles looking at the food displays through their “viewfinders.” Corita wanted to open their minds and adjust their vision to see the beauty in everything.

Brightly dressed young women roaming through a grocery store looking through tiny squares to see the art all around them. I can’t think of a better way to remember a woman who chose the religious name “Corita” because it meant Little Heart. Her heart proved bigger than the rest.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art 2022.3

¹A description written by Michael Wright in the March 18, 2022 edition of Nations, and too delicious to change.

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“She created the Love Stamp on commission from the U.S. Postal Service and it became the hottest selling stamp in history.”

2.
“She was known as the ‘Pop Art Nun’ … well, she created Pop Art, and she was a nun. Duh.”

3.
“When asked to take over the Mary’s Day Parade at the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles, she turned it into a joyous affair with musical instruments signs and bright colors.”

4.
“She left the church at the age of 50 because of conflict with the Archdiocese over reforms the nuns were instituting consistent with directives from Vatican II. As one of works said: ‘Love is Hard Work.’ So is change.”

Kent Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1918

Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa and named Frances Elizabeth Kent.

1923

The family moved to Hollywood, California for work opportunities.

1936

Graduated from the Los Angeles Catholic Girls High School (Now Bishop Conaty, Our Lady of Loretto.

1936

Entered the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and took Sister Mary Corita as her religious name. Corita means “Little Heart.” Studied at Immaculate Heart College, run by the nuns, and studied art.

1941

Completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Immaculate Heart College.

1944

Was assigned to teach primary school in British Columbia, Canada.

1947

Was called back to Immaculate Heart College and joined the Art Department faculty. She began graduate art school at University of Southern California (USC).

1951

While at USC she began screen printing which she saw as a way to make her art both more accessible and affordable. She graduated with a Masters Degree in 1951.

1952

Her print “lord is with thee” won first prize at both the Los Angeles County Museum’s print competition and the California State Fair.

1959

With her mentor Sister Magdalene Mary, she went on a trip to Europe and Egypt where Sister Magdalene acquired many pieces for the Gloria Collection of folk art.

1962

Took her students to see Andy Warhol’s soup can exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Afterward she began producing Pop Art prints. Pope John XXIII convened Vatican II which had far-reaching effects on the Catholic Church and the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

1963

Commissioned to create a banner for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

1964

Became chair of the Immaculate Heart College Art Department and was asked to take over planning for the Mary’s Day celebration. She turned the annual parade in a joyful, colorful event.

1965

Along with students Mickey Myers and Paula McGowan, she organized the Christmas display at the IBM Building in New York.

1966

Named one of nine Women of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. Among the other winners were Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Jean King.

1967

Corita appeared on the cover of the Christmas issue of Newsweek Magazine where the lead article was headlined: The Nun: Going Modern. Around this time the Archdiocese began resisting the changes the nuns at Immaculate Heart of Mary were making under the directives of Vatican II.

1968

Sister Corita took a sabbatical in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After much reflection she decided to seek dispensation from her vows and left the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order. Around the same time the Order reformed into the Immaculate Heart Community.

1971

Received a commission from the Boston Gas Company to design art for one of their gas tanks in Dorchester, Mass. Her design, The Rainbow Swash became the largest copyrighted artwork in the world.

1974

Corita was first diagnosed with cancer.

1977

She was diagnosed with cancer for a second time.

1980

The deCordova Museum in Massachusetts mounted major retrospective of her work.

1983

Created “We Can Create Life Without War” billboards on commission from Physicians for Social Responsibility. She called these billboards the most religious thing she’d ever done.

1985

Designed the Love postage stamp which became the biggest selling stamp in history. She refused to attend the unveiling on the Love Boat because that was not the kind of love she meant.

1986

Cancer appeared for the third time and this time it was fatal. Corita Kent died on September 18 leaving her unsold works and copyrights to the Immaculate Heart Community.

1997

The Immaculate Heart Community formed the Corita Art Center to honor her legacy.