Corita Kent was an American Catholic religious sister, artist and educator. Attending their school as a girl, at 18 she entered into the order of nuns of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Soon after, noticed for her artistic talent, she went on to work in the orders art college, that had a liberal reputation, and eventually becoming head of their art department in 1964.
At the orders art college, she decided to buy her own diy screen-printing kit and started experimenting. Her early work mostly figurative or religious, later on she began incorporating advertising images and slogans influenced by the pop culture and pop art movement of the time - artists like Andy Warhol coming to the forefront of the American art scene.
Her work communicates spiritual and activist messages, striving to bring attention to social injustices such as poverty or racism. Visually, however, she just wanted things to be beautiful and her artwork, as well as a method of social activism, was also just an expression of joy.
Corita Kent created so many pieces, mainly in screen-print or watercolour, but my favourites are the prints she made in the early/mid 1960s. The bold colours and use of type as a decorative shape in itself, I think is so effective in achieving this visual combination of an image that communicates a message, in a similar aesthetic to advertisements of the time - but also holds a visual quality that undeniable defines it as a beautiful piece of art.
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