Corita Kent made waves as the 'Pop-Art nun' in the '60s. A new center honors her legacy

Corita Kent, besides known arsenic Sister Mary Corita, was erstwhile famous. In December 1967, the then-L.A.-based creator made the screen of Newsweek and the banner successful the precocious close country read, “The Nun: Going Modern.” Kent is depicted doubly connected the screen — erstwhile successful her spiritual garb and besides successful an understated achromatic outfit surrounded by her colorful silkscreen prints. Here was a woman, successful the epoch of bid and emotion and societal change, who was some a nun and an artist, and a governmental 1 astatine that. Kent utilized her creation to convey messages of anticipation and societal justice.

Corita Kent astatine enactment successful 1967

(Corita Art Center, Los Angeles, corita.org)

On Saturday, a caller showcase for her enactment volition unfastened successful the downtown Arts District to assistance america retrieve that legacy. Besides offices and retention for a postulation that includes 30,000 pieces of creation and ephemera, the Corita Art Center, erstwhile located wrong Hollywood’s Immaculate Heart High School, volition have, for the archetypal time, a assemblage that volition besides service arsenic a schoolroom for visiting students. Researchers are besides invited to survey its archives.

The connection starts successful the shared lobby, with Kent’s 10 “rules” for the creation section she ran astatine Immaculate Heart College posted connected the wall. Rule No. 7 is successful the largest letters: “The lone regularisation is work.”

“We deliberation astir her originative bequest arsenic a surviving legacy, sharing the ethos that she near us,” says Nellie Scott, the center’s enforcement director, “not lone with the collection, but this that we support repeating arsenic our mantra, that doing and making are acts of hope.” Scott often uses the connection “groundbreaking” to picture Kent’s artwork.

Upon entering the center, determination is simply a tiny show profiling the creator and her antithetic career: a tattered transcript of that Newsweek screen sits connected the wall. In 1936, astatine property 18, Kent joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart and for galore years she taught creation astatine Immaculate Heart College, adjacent to the precocious school. She was drawn to the bold graphics of Pop Art, making serigraphs truthful that her enactment would beryllium affordable.

1967 representation by Corita Kent

(Corita Art Center successful Los Angeles, corita.org)

Over the years, her artwork became progressively political, supporting issues specified arsenic the antiwar movement, radical equality and women’s rights. Slogans and quotes often look successful her prints, including “Make Love, Not War.” After a showdown with the blimpish Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, she near the bid successful 1968, relocating to Boston. She died of crab determination in 1986 astatine property 67.

In a metropolis wherever pistillate artists stay vastly underrepresented successful galleries and museums, the opening of the Corita Art Center “stands arsenic a almighty testament to her enduring interaction and the necessity of amplifying women’s voices successful art,” says Sheharazad Fleming, committee seat of the center, pointing retired that determination are precise fewer nationalist creation spaces dedicated to the enactment and bequest of an idiosyncratic pistillate artist.

Kent’s enactment has inspired L.A. artists who came connected the country agelong aft she near the city. “Sister Corita Kent is cardinal to my beginnings arsenic an artist,” says Lauren Halsey, who grew up successful Los Angeles and attended assemblage assemblage earlier going to CalArts. “I came crossed her enactment via my erstwhile professor, Paul Gellman, successful 2005 astatine El Camino Community College. Her maximalist graphic sensibilities and insistence connected embracing experimentation person been foundational to my ain practice.”

Alexandra Grant, who discovered Kent’s enactment aft she became a nonrecreational artist, admires “the freshness she projected to the Pop Art question done her idealism and the bold artistry she brought to the societal justness movement.”

The caller Corita Art Center successful Los Angeles opens with an grounds titled “Heroes and Sheroes.”

(corita.org)

The archetypal amusement successful the center’s creation assemblage is “Heroes and Sheroes,” a radical of 29 prints Kent made aft she moved to Boston. In these works, she utilized a collage of words and images from newspapers and magazines to convey her messages, paired with portraits of Cesar Chavez, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King and the Kennedys.

This is the archetypal clip these works person been shown successful nationalist together. Admission to the center, which is unfastened connected Saturdays, is free, but reservations are required.

Corita Kent’s “for exigency usage brushed shoulder.”

(Arthur Evans / corita.org)

One of the large funders of the determination is the Immaculate Heart Community, the autarkic radical formed erstwhile the nuns successful Kent’s bid splintered from the Catholic Church. “I deliberation it is important to cognize that this assemblage that she came from is 1 of the supporters of this bequest program,” Scott says. “This enactment that usually is down walls and benignant of quiescent — they’re inactive supporting the ngo of Sister Corita 60 years later.”