Sister Corita Kent fought for
food justice with visuals
Sister Corita Kent was ahead of
her time. A radical nun, activist and artist, her printmaking skills and
artistic sensibilities were cutting edge. Despite having groovy famous creative
friends and being part of a powerful institution— the Catholic church—Frances
Elizabeth Corita Kent’s feminist, pro-civil rights, and pacifist politics made
her a highly visible figure, yet kept her marginalized. Beginning in 1946,
Iowa-born, L.A.-raised Kent taught in the art department at Immaculate Heart
College (her alma mater, and now Immaculate Heart High School) in Los Feliz,
until she left the order Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and moved to
Boston in 1968. She died from cancer in 1986 at the age of 67.
Someday is Now: The Art of
Corita Kent is the first formalized public effort to review the sweep of her
life and career. The exhibition originated at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum
and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and has finally
arrived on Kent’s home turf in Southern California at the Pasadena Museum of
California Art.
In this survey, audiences can
see how Kent shed light on a particular issue that’s become a larger part of
the cultural dialogue in recent years: food justice. Kent knew how important it
was for everyone to have access to nourishing meals. Following is a selection
of Sister Corita’s incredible own Pop Art brand of food-related imagery from
the exhibition, which is on view at PMCA through November 1st.
— Jessica Ritz
Sister Corita wound send her
students from IHC across the street to the Market Basket grocery store at the
southwest corner of Franklin and Western (where a Rite Aid now stands), where
she found inspiration in items ranging from iconic American processed foods
packaging to fresh produce signage. In crafting her own Pop Art approach, she
mastered serigraphy printmaking techniques to deconstruct imagery and text in
ways previously unseen.
In contrast to a certain
influential artist of the time with whom Kent’s work is inevitably compared,
her sensibility had “a more literate quality” than Andy Warhol, said Sasha
Carrera, the Creative Consultant (and former director) of the Corita Art Center
in Los Feliz. Sister Corita would “juxtapose bold graphics with intimate text,”
quoting her favorite writers such as E.E. Cummings, Langston Hughes, and
Gertrude Stein, in addition to making pop culture references.
She appropriated “Madison
Avenue signage for her own ecumenical purposes,” explained independent curator
Michael Duncan, who co-curated the exhibition with Ian Berry of Skidmore
College in collaboration with the Corita Art Center. In this case, borrowing
General Mills’ “The Big G stands for goodness” logo and ad slogan works as
satire and a call to action, speaking to multiple aspects of physical and
spiritual nourishment.
“The slogans of Wonder Bread were perfect for
her” and provided “an early way of commenting on consumerism” when contrasted
with a quote from Albert Camus, Duncan said. This period in her career
dovetailed with LBJ’s War on Poverty and the introduction of the Great Society
programs, too.
“There’s always humor, and always
sophisticated formal qualities” in Sister Carita’s output, Carrera observed.
Want to take some bread and
toast and other Sister Carita souvenirs home? Then pick up the Bauer Pottery
mugs available in the museum’s gift shop.