I, Corita Kent

I, from the series Signal Code Alphabet
Corita Kent (1918 - 1986)
serigraph
California
1968
17 x 22 1/2 inches
Sr. Corita [Kent] silk screen prints on the alphabet, GTU 2002-8-01

Corita Kent (1918 - 1986), a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, was one of a number of remarkable nuns teaching at Immaculate Heart College Lost Angeles in the sixties. She directed the art department there until she left the Order and moved to Boston in 1968. Beginning in the sixties, she increasingly gained renown for her use of pop art with both spiritual and modern themes, utilizing bright colors and contemporary quotes. Her commisions ranged from a banner for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair to her 22-cent Love Stamp, commisioned by the US Postal Service.

For additional resources: the GTU library has a number of books illustrated by Corita Kent. To locate them, just enter her name in GRACE. See the Corita Art Center website. Her archival papers are at Harvard. The online finding aid for Papers of Corita, provides an interesting biography. The Internet Archive has the Corita Kent oral history transcript (1977) online. GTU library has 11 prints, 17 1/2" X 23", from the series Signal Code Alphabet. The second set of 10 prints, 23" X 23", has block letters on a circus theme from Damn every thing but the circus; a lot of things put together.