Corita’s Kent (1918-1986) silk canvases amazingly mix various visible and text sources. She colorfully compared beautiful memories of everyday survival, book quotations, and things taken from public culture and mass communications, preparing them for the service of human truth. In her painting, words and language become structure and image, the pattern and content of the painting correspond to each other.
The art of Corita Kent can be seen both as pop art and as the precursor of “Photographic Generation”. Entering the Order of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles at the age of 18, she became part of the organization for thirty years, raising a famous art teacher at Immaculate Heart College and finally leading its art district. She was a passionate fighter for friendship and human truth, becoming a popular public figure as an artist, professor, and civil lady in the 1960s, in 1967 on top of Newsweek under the title “NUN: GOING MODERN”. Her association with Pop Art and her promotion in it, with all the social reforms, meant its fusion with the elite and the famous culture, supported by her devotion to the revival and renewal of spiritual life, assumed by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles. In the art of Kent, one person helps another, so her art is wonderful, and the problem of classification.
“Love is hard work,” Corita Kent
Corita Kent was invited to create a postage stamp in 1983. After several years, the sign is published. The opening was at Love Boat. Angry, Corita refuses to come explaining that it was not the love she had in mind. She wanted the sign to be released at the United Nations. In return, she does the work: “Love is hard work”.
“Life is hard work,” Corita Kent
Introducing the Kent method is an American model, a painting that shows how she used color and points to political issues. Her stamped words in red, white, and blue point to both American colors and the Old West posters. In her work, Crete stresses the purity of words, encouraging people to reflect on their own responsibilities.
