1. Corita Kent, born Frances Elizabeth Kent and known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an American artist, designer and educator, and former religious sister.
34 Facts About Corita Kent
1. 2.
Corita Kent was a teacher at the Immaculate Heart College.
3.
At 18 years of age, Kent entered the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, which were known to be very progressive and welcomed creativity.
4.
Corita Kent received a bachelor's degree at Immaculate Heart College and a master's degree at University of Southern California.
5.
Corita Kent was the head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College.
6.
Corita Kent's artwork contained her own spiritual expression and love for God.
7.
Corita Kent became self-taught after she sent away for a DIY silk screening kit.
8.
Corita Kent would move to the East Coast and begin to work independently.
9.
In recent years, Corita Kent has gained increased recognition for her role in the pop art movement.
10.
Corita Kent's art was her activism, and her spiritually-informed social commentary promoted love and tolerance.
11.
Frances Elizabeth Corita Kent, fifth child of Robert Vincent and Edith Genevieve, was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918.
12.
Corita Kent's parents were artistically inclined, especially her father, and always encouraged her art.
13.
Corita Kent graduated from Los Angeles Catholic Girls' High School in 1936.
14.
Corita Kent took classes at Otis and Chouinard Art Institute and earned her BA from Immaculate Heart College in 1941.
15.
Corita Kent earned her MA at the University of Southern California in Art History in 1951.
16.
Between 1938 and 1968 Corita Kent lived and worked in the Immaculate Heart Community.
17.
Corita Kent taught in the Immaculate Heart College and became the chair of its art department in 1964.
18.
Corita Kent credited Charles Eames, Buckminster Fuller, and art historian Dr Alois Schardt for their important roles in her intellectual and artistic growth.
19.
Corita Kent's students were drawn to her selflessness and unique teaching methods such as large class assignments like asking students to create 200 drawings or take three hours to draw their arm without looking at what they were creating.
20.
Corita Kent embraced the many different revolutionary movements going on in the world at this time.
21.
Corita Kent created several hundred serigraph designs, for posters, book covers, and murals.
22.
Corita Kent's work includes the 1985 United States Postal Service stamp Love and the 1971 Rainbow Swash, the largest copyrighted work of art in the world, covering a 150-foot high natural gas tank in Boston.
23.
Corita Kent did not attend the unveiling of the Love stamp because she wanted it to happen at the United Nations and was not happy with the message that was sent when the design was unveiled on the Love Boat.
24.
Corita Kent was commissioned to create work for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, and the 1965 IBM Christmas display in New York.
25.
The Papers of Corita revealed Kent had kept two calendars towards the end of her life.
26.
Corita Kent died on September 18,1986, in Watertown Massachusetts at the age of sixty-seven.
27.
Corita Kent left her copyrights and unsold works to the Immaculate Heart Community formed by the former IHM sisters in Los Angeles.
28.
Corita Kent, inspired by the works of Andy Warhol, began using popular culture as raw material for her work in 1962.
29.
Corita Kent's style is heavily text-based, with scripture passages or positive quotes often encompassing entire compositions with bold and highly saturated typefaces.
30.
Corita Kent produced her oeuvre during her time at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles in response to the Catholic reform in the 1960s by the Vatican Council II as well as several political and social issues happening at the time.
31.
Corita Kent had solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and her work is in several art museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
32.
The Corita Art Center, a gallery and archive dedicated to preserving and promoting the work and spirit of Corita Kent, was originally founded as the Corita Prints in 1969 in North Hollywood.
33.
Corita Kent received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal in 2016.
34.
Corita Kent was one of the nuns featured in Rebel Hearts, a 2021 American documentary directed, produced, and edited by Pedro Kos.