Corita Kent American, 1918-1986

Works
  • Corita Kent, Mayflowers, 1957
    Mayflowers, 1957
Overview
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 in Los Angeles, Sister Mary Corita served as both an educator and an activist at the Immaculate Heart College, where she was head of the art department. In 1968, she moved to Boston to devote her life exclusively to making art. While her earliest pieces are religious, starting in the 1960s her work took a secular, activist turn, interspersing images from the civil rights movement and antiwar protests with politically charged slogans.