Skip to main content

Corita Kent Art

American, 1918-1986

Sister Mary Corita Kent, once the nation's best known nun, won fame as a serigraph artist. Her bright, colorful silkscreen prints were the rage of the 1960s. She designed the first "Love" U.S. postage stamp.

Mary Corita Kent was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918, then moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1920. Two years later they moved to Los Angeles, where she grew up. Kent joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary there in 1938. She received her bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in 1941, followed by a master's in art history 10 years later from the University of Southern California.

Popularly known as "Sister Mary Corita," the artist turned to the silkscreen process in 1950. Her large compositions combine quotations, often from the Bible or modern poetry, with religious or secular images. She achieved fame in the early 1960s with her brightly colored silkscreen posters. Some of her work includes excerpts from the writings of Carl Jung, e.e. cummings and Rainer Maria Rilke. She began adding words to her designs because, she said, "I have been nuts about words and their shape since I was very young."

Perhaps becoming a celebrity came too soon for the nun. It was something she never asked to be, but she carried the burdens of stardom with grace, kindness, and loving warmth. She never was arrogant, and accepted the status because she believed it would help the College of the Immaculate Heart — where she was teaching — and she thought it would be good for her community of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Corita became a symbol of the modern nun and was often the target of conservative Catholics, particularly when she turned to regular street dress in 1967.

After more than 30 years as a nun, Kent returned to private life in December 1968, moving to Boston to devote herself to her art, and opening a gallery. For the next 18 years, Kent created over 50 commissions, in addition to over 400 new editions of serigraphs. Special projects included the landmark 150-foot rainbow painting on the Boston Gas Company's natural gas tank, numerous murals, billboards, book covers and book illustrations, logos, greeting cards and more. She also created complete editions of serigraphs for fundraising use by numerous organizations dedicated to peace and social justice. She won dozens of art prizes and saw her work hung in many of the world's major art museums. Critics praised her prints as joyful, exuberant, bold and radiant.

Around 1977, the artist developed cancer, and although her doctor gave her only six months to live, she knew that she had major art pieces to accomplish before she died — nine years later. Kent passed away in 1986, bequeathing her remaining prints, as well as the copyrights to all her works, to support the good work of the Immaculate Heart Community.

Find original Corita Kent art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Helicline Fine Art)

1
to
9
9
6
3
2
1
Sister Corita (vintage hand signed poster) Images Gallery rarely found signed
By Corita Kent
Located in New York, NY
Sister Mary Corita Kent Sister Corita hand signed poster, 1985 Offset Lithograph Signed in pencil by the artist on the lower right 24 x 18 inches Unframed This offset lithograph post...
Category

1980s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Pencil, Lithograph, Offset

Yes to You, silkscreen, pencil signed Artists Proof with heart (regular ed. 200)
By Corita Kent
Located in New York, NY
Corita Kent Yes to You, 1979 Color silkscreen Hand signed, numbered and uniquely inscribed with a heart doodle by the artist on the front. Artists Proof (aside from the regular editi...
Category

1970s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen, Pencil

Sister Mary Corita Kent Signed Limited Edition Large Abstract Serigraph Print
By Corita Kent
Located in Studio City, CA
Known as God's own Pop artist, Sister Mary Corita Kent went straight from high school into Catholic convent life in 1936. While serving her order and teaching art at Immaculate Heart...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Corita Kent Original Serigraph Vietnam War Protest, "Wouldn't You Go to Jail.."
By Corita Kent
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Original serigraph by Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986). Sheet size: 25"h x 30"w. Titled “Would You Go to Jail if it Would End the War? Quote by activist Daniel Ellsberg. Important & rare serigraph protesting the Vietnam war. Signed lower right in ink. Ca. 1971 Loosely tipped onto a black mat board measuring 26 x 31 inches. Neither matted nor framed. In excellent condition with no damage. Sister Corita Kent (1918-1986) was a nun and art teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Her departure from the school (and the order) in 1968, was partially related to tension between the order and the church over the progressive reforms of the Vatican II movement, but it was also timed with her own artistic commitments and rising renown. Throughout the 1960s, she made radio and TV appearances and lectured around the country. Before Warhol made the medium famous, she was working in serigraphy (screen-printing) because it could be cheaply mass-produced and widely disseminated. Her lively, colorful works speak through graphic simplicity as they combine Bible verses, brand logos, literary quotes, and even Beatles lyrics...
Category

Late 20th Century Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

One Man One Woman by Sister Corita Kent (INV# NP3567)
By Corita Kent
Located in Morton Grove, IL
Sister Corita Kent One Man One Woman (INV# NP3567) screenprint in colors print: 16.5 x 15" frame: 20 x 18.5" 1976 signed by artist *Not examined out of frame
Category

1970s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Lovers by Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) (INV# NP3218)
By Corita Kent
Located in Morton Grove, IL
Corita Kent Lovers Serigraph Print Image: 4.88 x 9" Frame:11.75 x 15.75 x .75" 1983 Signed in pencil and numbered to lower edge ‘ed 200 Corita’
Category

1980s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Thoreau "If a Man Does Not Keep Peace"
By Corita Kent
Located in Missouri, MO
Thoreau "If a Man Does Not Keep Peace" Sister Mary Corita Kent (American, 1918-1986) Signed in Pencil Lower Right 22.5 x 22.5 inches 23.25 x 23.25 inches with frame Sister Mary Cori...
Category

20th Century American Modern Corita Kent Art

Materials

Color, Lithograph

Leo Baeck "and a Spirit is Characterized"
By Corita Kent
Located in Missouri, MO
Leo Baeck and a Spirit is Characterized Sister Mary Corita Kent (American, 1918-1986) Signed Lower Right in Pencil Edition of 250 Lower center 21.5 x 21.5 inches 24 x 24 inches frame...
Category

20th Century American Modern Corita Kent Art

Materials

Color, Lithograph

Original 1978 Sister Corita Kent Poster
By Corita Kent
Located in Oakland, CA
Original 1978 "I Love You Very Much" print by Sister Mary Corita Kent promoting her exhibition in Costa Mesa, CA. Plate signed and set in a black anodized aluminum frame. Overall ver...
Category

1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Aluminum

Related Items
Keith Haring Fun Gallery exhibition poster 1983 (vintage Keith Haring)
By Keith Haring
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Keith Haring Fun Gallery 1983: Original 1983 Keith Haring illustrated exhibition poster published on the occasion of Haring's historic 1983 show at the Fun Gallery in the East Village. A classic array of early Haring imagery that reveals red and black interlocking figures. A rare example in very good overall vintage condition. Offset lithograph in colors on smooth wove paper. 23 x 29 inches. Only some minor signs of handling; in otherwise very good overall vintage condition with strong colors; one of the better examples we've come across. Stored away from light; never mounted or framed. Unsigned from an edition of unknown; scarce. Catalog Raisonne: Keith Haring: Posters (Prestel Publishing). References: Included in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. About the Fun Gallery: Historic, short-lived, East Village gallery known for giving Keith Haring, Basquiat & Kenny Scharf some of their first solo shows. “FUN Gallery was a place where neighborhood kids, downtown artists, b-boys, rock, film, and rap stars mixed with museum directors art historians and uptown collectors at wild openings featuring artists like Futura, Fab 5...
Category

1980s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Deborah Kass Feminist Jewish American Pop Art Silkscreen Screenprint Ltd Edition
By Deborah Kass
Located in Surfside, FL
Deborah Kass (born 1952) Being Alive, 2012 nine-color silkscreen, one color blend on 2-ply museum board Image 24 x 24 image. Frame 29 x 29 x 2 inches Edition 1/65 Hand signed and dated in pencil, lower right verso; numbered lower left verso Being Alive is from a vibrant and uplifting body of work entitled Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times. Finding inspiration in pop culture, political realities, film, Yiddish, art historical styles, and prominent art world figures, Deborah Kass uses appropriation in her work to explore notions of identity, politics, and her own cultural interests. She received her BFA in painting at Carnegie Mellon University and studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and the Art Students League of New York. Deborah Kass (born 1952) is an American artist whose work explores the intersection of pop culture, art history, and the construction of self. Deborah Kass works in mixed media, and is most recognized for her paintings, prints, photography, sculptures and neon lighting installations. Kass's early work mimics and reworks signature styles of iconic male artists of the 20th century including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Ed Ruscha. Kass's technique of appropriation is a critical commentary on the intersection of social power relations, identity politics, and the historically dominant position of male artists in the art world. Deborah Kass was born in 1952 in San Antonio, Texas. Her grandparents were from Belarus and Ukraine, first generation Jewish immigrants to New York. Kass's parents were from the Bronx and Queens, New York. Her father did two years in the U.S. Air Force on base in San Antonio until the family returned to the suburbs of Long Island, New York, where Kass grew up. Kass’s mother was a substitute teacher at the Rockville Centre public schools and her father was a dentist and amateur jazz musician. At age 14, Kass began taking drawing classes at The Art Students League in New York City which she funded with money she made babysitting. In the afternoons, she would go to theater on and off Broadway, often sneaking for the second act. During her high school years, she would take her time in the city to visit the Museum of Modern Art, where she would be exposed to the works of post-war artists like Frank Stella and Willem De Kooning. At age 17, Stella’s retrospective exhibition inspired Kass to become an artist as she observed and understood the logic in his progression of works and the motivation behind his creative decisions. Kass received her BFA in Painting at Carnegie Mellon University (the alma mater of artist Andy Warhol), and studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program Here, she created her first work of appropriation, Ophelia’s Death After Delacroix, a six by eight foot rendition of a small sketch by the French Romantic artist, Eugène Delacroix. At the same time Neo-Expressionism was being helmed by white men in the late Reagan years, women were just beginning to create a stake in the game for critical works. “The Photo Girls” consisted of artists like Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, and Barbara Kruger. Kass felt that content of these works connected those of the post-war abstract painters of the mid-70s including Elizabeth Murray, Pat Steir, and Susan Rothenberg. All of these artists critically explored art in terms of new subjectivities from their points-of-view as women. Kass took from these artists the ideas of cultural and media critique, inspiring her Art History Paintings. Kass is most famous for her “Decade of Warhol,” in which she appropriated various works by the pop artist, Andy Warhol. She used Warhol’s visual language to comment on the absence of women in art history at the same time that Women’s Studies began to emerge in academia. Reading texts on subjectivity, objectivity, specificity, and gender fluidity by theorists like Judith Butler and Eve Sedgwick, Kass became literate in ideas surrounding identity. She engaged with art history through the lens of feminism, because of this theory which “The Photo Girls” drew upon. Kass's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Jewish Museum (New York); Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Cincinnati Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums; and Weatherspoon Museum, among others. In 2012 Kass's work was the subject of a mid-career retrospective Deborah Kass, Before and Happily Ever After at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. An accompanying catalogue published by Skira Rizzoli, included essays by noted art historians Griselda Pollock, Irving Sandler, Robert Storr, Eric C. Shiner and writers and filmmakers Lisa Liebmann, Brooks Adams, and John Waters. Kass's work has been shown at international private and public venues including at the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennale, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Museum of Modern Art, The Jewish Museum, New York, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A survey show, Deborah Kass, The Warhol Project traveled across the country from 1999–2001. She is a Senior Critic in the Yale University M.F.A. Painting Program. Kass's later paintings often borrow their titles from song lyrics. Her series feel good paintings for feel bad times, incorporates lyrics borrowed from The Great American Songbook, which address history, power, and gender relations that resonate with Kass's themes in her own work. In Kass's first significant body of work, the Art History Paintings, she combined frames lifted from Disney cartoons with slices of painting from Pablo Picasso, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, and other contemporary sources. Establishing appropriation as her primary mode of working, these early paintings also introduced many of the central concerns of her work to the present. Before and Happily Ever After, for example, coupled Andy Warhol’s painting of an advertisement for a nose job with a movie still of Cinderella fitting her foot into her glass slipper, touching on notions of Americanism and identity in popular culture. The Art History Paintings series engages critically with the history of politics and art making, especially exploring the power relationship of men and women in society. Deborah Kass's work reveals a personal relationship she shares with particular artworks, songs and personalities, many of which are referenced directly in her paintings. In 1992, Kass began The Warhol Project. Beginning in the 1960s, Andy Warhol’s paintings employed mass production through screen-printing to depict iconic American products and celebrities. Using Warhol’s stylistic language to represent significant women in art, Kass turned Warhol’s relationship to popular culture on its head by replacing them with subjects of her own cultural interests. She painted artists and art historians that were her heroes including Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Murray, and Linda Nochlin. Drawing upon her childhood nostalgia, the Jewish Jackie series depicts actress Barbra Streisand, a celebrity with whom she closely identifies, replacing Warhol's prints of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Marilyn Monroe. Her My Elvis series likewise speaks to gender and ethnic identity by replacing Warhol's Elvis with Barbra Streisand from Yentl: a 1983 film in which Streisand plays a Jewish woman who dresses and lives as a man in order to receive an education in the Talmudic Law. Kass's Self Portraits as Warhol further deteriorates the idea of rigid gender norms and increasingly identifies the artist with Warhol. By appropriating Andy Warhol's print Triple Elvis and replacing Elvis Presley with Barbara Streisand’s Yentl, Kass is able to identify herself with history’s icons, creating a history with powerful women as subjects of art. The work embodies her concerns surrounding gender representation, advocates for a feminist revision of art, and directly challenges the tradition of patriarchy. America's Most Wanted is a series of enlarged black-and-white screen prints of fake police mug shots. The collection of prints from 1998–1999 is a late-1990s update of Andy Warhol’s 1964 work 13 Most Wanted Men, which featured the most wanted criminals of 1962. The “criminals” are identified in titles only by first name and surname initial, but in reality the criminals depicted are individuals prominent in today's art world. Some of the individuals depicted include Donna De Salvo, deputy director for international initiatives and senior curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art; Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art. Kass's subjects weren’t criminals. Through this interpretation, Kass show's how they are wanted by aspirants for their ability to elevate artists’ careers. The series explores the themes of authorship and the gaze, at the same time problematizing certain connotations within the art world. In 2002, Kass began a new body of work, feel good paintings for feel bad times, inspired, in part, by her reaction to the Bush administration. These works combine stylistic devices from a wide variety of post-war painting, including Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Ed Ruscha, along with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Laura Nyro, and Sylvester, among others, pulling from popular music, Broadway show tunes, the Great American Songbook, Yiddish, and film. The paintings view American art and culture of the last century through the lens of that time period's outpouring of creativity that was the result of post-war optimism, a burgeoning middle class, and democratic values. Responding to the uncertain political and ecological climate of the new century in which they have been made, Kass's work looks back on the 20th century critically and simultaneously with great nostalgia, throwing the present into high relief. Drawing, as always, from the divergent realms of art history, popular culture, political realities, and her own political and philosophical reflection, the artist continues into the present the explorations that have characterized her paintings since the 1980s in these new hybrid textual and visual works. OY/YO In 2015, Two Tree Management Art in Dumbo commissioned of a monumentally scaled installation of OY/YO for the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The sculpture, measuring 8×17×5 ft., consists of big yellow aluminum letters, was installed on the waterfront and was visible from the Manhattan. It spells “YO” against the backdrop of Brooklyn. The flip side, for those gazing at Manhattan, reads “OY.”[ An article and photo appeared on the front page of the New York Times 3 days after its installation in the park. An instant icon, OY/YO stayed at that site for 10 months where it became a tourist destination, a favorite spot for wedding, graduation, class photos and countless selfies. After its stay in Dumbo it moved to the ferry stop at North 6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for a year, where it greeted ferry riders. Since 2011, OY/YO has been a reoccurring motif in Deborah Kass's work in the form of paintings, prints, and tabletop sculptures. Kass first created “OY” as a painting riffing on Edward Ruscha’s 1962 Pop canvas, “OOF.” She later painted “YO” as a diptych that nodded to Picasso's 1901 self-portrait, “Yo Picasso” (“I, Picasso”). OY/YO is now installed in front of the Brooklyn Museum. Another arrived at Stanford University in front of the Cantor Arts Center late 2019. A large edition of OY/YO was acquired by the Jewish Museum in New York in 2017 and is on view in the exhibition Scenes from the Collection. On December 9, 2015 Deborah Kass introduced her new paintings that incorporated neon lights in an exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery entitled "No Kidding" in Chelsea, New York. The exhibition was an extension of her Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times, but it sets a darker, tougher tone as she reflects on contemporary issues such as global warming, institutional racism, political brutality, gun violence, and attacks on women's health, through the lens of minimalism and grief. The series is ongoing. Deborah Kass has spoken about creating an “ode to the great Louises,” a space dedicated to her works inspired by famous Louise’s which she would call the “Louise Suite.” The earliest of these odes is “Sing Out Louise,” a 2002 oil on linen painting from her Feel Good Paintings Feel Bad Times collection. “Sing out Louise” is driven by her fondness for Rosalind Russel and the fact Kass feels it is her time to “Sing Out] “After Louise Bourgeois” is a 2010 sculpture made of neon and transformers on powder-coated aluminum monolith; it is a spiraling neon light with a phrase inspired by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois.[22] The neon installation reads “A woman has no place in the art world unless she proves over and over again that she won’t be eliminated.” Kass changed the quote slightly to better represent her beliefs but it was derived from Bourgeois. “After Louise Nevelson” is a 2020 spiraling neon work of art that reads "Anger? I'd be dead without my anger" a quote from American sculptor, Louise Nevelson. Award and Grants New York Foundation for the Arts, inducted into NYFA Hall of Fame (2014) Art Matters Inc. Grant (1996) Art Matters Inc. Grant (1992) New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting 1987 National Endowment for the Arts, Painting (1991) National Endowment For The Arts (1987) Selected solo and group exhibitions The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, “Scenes from the Collection” National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC “Eye Pop: the Celebrity Gaze” Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY, “No Kidding” (2015-2016) Sargent...
Category

2010s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Erte Serigraph "Riviera"
By Erté
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Erte serigraph titled "Riviera", pencil signed and numbered Erte 30/300 and circa 1978. Piece is matted and in silver frame. Minor faint crack to glass,...
Category

1970s French Art Deco Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Silk

Erte Serigraph "Riviera"
Erte Serigraph "Riviera"
H 22 in W 17 in D 2 in
Montreux Jazz Festival -- Screen Print, Pop Shop by Keith Haring
By Keith Haring
Located in London, GB
Montreux Jazz Festival, 1983 Keith Haring Screenprint in colours, on wove Printed by Serigraphie Uldry Bern, Switzerland Published for the Montreux Jazz Festival Sheet: 100 × 70 cm...
Category

1980s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Calder Exhibition Poster - Vintage Screen Print after Alexander Calder - 1976
By Alexander Calder
Located in Roma, IT
Calder Exhibition Print is a screen print realized by Alexander Calder in 1976. Good condition except for some folding and scratches. This beautiful and colored print was realized...
Category

1970s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

1970s Alexander Calder poster (Calder Braniff Airlines 1976)
By Alexander Calder
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Alexander Calder Braniff Airlines poster 1976: Medium: Offset lithograph. Dimensions: 23 x 33 inches. An original 1st printing in very good ...
Category

1970s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Frances Goodman Bite Your Tongue Limited Edition Print
By Phaidon
Located in New York, NY
Print Archival pigment print on Moab Entrada Measures: 20.00 x 20.00 in 50.8 x 50.8 cm Edition of 50 This work comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity. Frances Goodman...
Category

2010s American Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Hush, Poise, Limited Edition Screen Print
By HUSH
Located in Miami, FL
18 layer limited edition screen print on 300gsm somerset white satin hand pressed cotton paper with a gloss UV finish over figure, editio...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary English Other Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Hush, Poise, Limited Edition Screen Print
Hush, Poise, Limited Edition Screen Print
H 29.13 in W 21.26 in D 0.01 in
Milton Glaser The Lovin' Spoonful poster (Milton Glaser posters)
By Milton Glaser
Located in NEW YORK, NY
1970s Milton Glaser Poster Art: Milton Glaser The Lovin' Spoonful: Vintage original Milton Glaser poster c.1972. Designed by Milton Glaser on the occasion of: "The Lovin' Spoonful a...
Category

1960s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Keith Haring Paradise Garage Exhibit Poster 'Keith Haring Jeffrey Deitch'
By Keith Haring
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Rare vintage Keith Haring exhibition poster published on the occasion of: ‘Paradise Garage: Keith Haring and Music, December 14, 2000-February 10, 2001, Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster ...
Category

1980s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper, Lithograph, Offset

Milton Glaser The Newport Jazz Festival
By Milton Glaser
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Milton Glaser Newport Jazz Festival at The Russian Tea Room: The Russian Tea Room is an iconic restaurant in NYC located next to New York's Carne...
Category

1960s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Jasper Johns Untitled
By Jasper Johns
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Untitled Medium: Screenprint in colors on Patapar printing parchment Year: 1977 Edition: 3000 Frame Size: 17" x 17" Sheet Size: 10 5/8" x 10 1/4" Image Si...
Category

1970s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Jasper Johns Untitled
Jasper Johns Untitled
Free Shipping
H 17 in W 17 in
Previously Available Items
We Don't Turn Out Perfect
By Corita Kent
Located in Missouri, MO
We Don't Turn Out Perfect Corita Kent (American, 1918-1986) Signature Faded Lower Right in Pencil 14.5 x 29.75 inches 15.75 x 30.75 inches with frame Sister Mary Corita Kent, once t...
Category

20th Century American Modern Corita Kent Art

Materials

Color, Lithograph

Original 1978 Sister Corita Kent Poster
By Corita Kent
Located in Oakland, CA
Original 1978 "I Love You Very Much" print by Sister Mary Corita Kent promoting her exhibition in Costa Mesa, CA. Plate signed and set in a black anodized aluminum frame. Overall ver...
Category

1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Aluminum

Original 1978 Sister Corita Kent Poster
Original 1978 Sister Corita Kent Poster
H 28.25 in W 22.25 in D 1 in
Rainbow Covenant (Genesis 9) pencil signed limited edition of 200 Pop Art print
By Corita Kent
Located in New York, NY
Corita Kent Rainbow Covenant, 1971 Color lithograph on wove paper Signed in graphite pencil, and notated ed. 200 (edition of 200) Limited Edition of 200 Vintage metal 1970s frame Included One of the most coveted and elusive graphic works done by Sister Mary Corita Kent - done in the most desirable era. Pencil signed on the front in a stated limited edition of 200 Held in vintage 1970s metal frame under glass. Measurements: Framed 23 inches by 23 inches by 1.25 inches Artwork: 22.75 inches vertical by 22.75 inches Commissioned by The Rainbow Shop in Beverly Hills for Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children. The quote on its face reads: "I put my rainbow in the clouds and it shall be a symbol of the covenant between myself and the world. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds. And then I will remember my covenant." - Genesis 9 This Rainbow print was done in 1971 - the same year Sister Corita painted her rainbow swash on the 150-foot-high LNG storage tanks in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. It is not only a visible landmark, it is the largest copyrighted work of art in the world. One of Boston’s most controversial works of art hangs not in a museum, but on the walls of a massive gas storage tank. Originally painted by Sister Mary Corita Kent in 1971, the rainbow swashes are a welcome, lighthearted burst of color that have had some Bostonians up in arms for four decades. An outspoken pacifist during the Vietnam War, Kent painted simple pop art posters with with messages like, Stop the Bombing, Love is Here to Say, and I Should Like to Be Able to Love My Country and Still Love Justice. Sister Corita Kent Known for her willingness to stick it to the man, Kent ran into a bit of controversy after painting the gas tank in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, off Interstate 93 south of downtown. The largest copyrighted work of art in the world, the Rainbow Swash consists of orange, yellow, red, blue, green, and purple stripes strewn over a white background on the tank. On the left side of the blue strip, there’s a subtle profile of an eye and nose and seemingly long-pointed goatee beneath. Considering Kent’s background and the politically tumultuous times, some people took on the belief that the profile was a portrait of Ho Chi Minh in protest against the Vietnam War. She denied the allegations and things were pretty much left there, but either for its enjoyable aesthetics or long-lasting message, the piece remained right there for Boston’s millions of daily commuters. Even in 1992 when they tore down the original tank, the Swash was immediately reproduced on a new, similar-looking tank. Today, it’s considered a distinguished mark of the city. When parents take their kids home from a day at Fenway or the Museum of Science, they point to the tank and challenge their children to find the hidden face. In 1985, The U.S. Postal Service sold more than 700 million of Corita Kent's Love’ postage stamps. The bright, optimistic design typified her work. Corita Kent was born Frances Elizabeth Kent Nov. 20, 1918 in Fort Dodge, Iowa, to devout Catholic parents. Just after graduating from high school, she followed her older sister and joined the Roman Catholic order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles. As Sister Mary Corita, she taught art at Immaculate Heart College from 1938 to 1968, eventually heading the department. At the college she created bold, colorful silkscreen works. She incorporated spiritual themes and literary and political writings with product slogans, street signs, and Beatles lyrics...
Category

1970s Pop Art Corita Kent Art

Materials

Lithograph, Pencil

"Abstract Red, Purple, " Sister Mary Corita Kent, Female 20th Century Artist
By Corita Kent
Located in New York, NY
Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918 - 1986) Abstract Red, Purple Watercolor on paper Image 12 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Larry Linksey, Los Angeles, California Private Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico Matthews Gallery, Santa Fe Sister Mary Corita Kent, once the nation's best-known nun, won fame as a serigraph artist. Her bright, colorful silk-screen prints were the rage of the 1960s. She designed the United States' first "Love" postage stamp. Mary Corita Kent was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1918, then moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1920. Two years later they moved to Los Angeles, where she grew up. She joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary there in 1938. She received her bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College in 1941, followed by a master's in art history 10 years later from the University of Southern California. Popularly known as "Sister Mary Corita," she turned to the silk-screen process in 1950. Her large compositions combine quotations, often from the Bible or modern poetry, with religious or secular images. During her career as an artist and teacher, Kent also designed greeting cards and book covers. She achieved fame in the early 1960s with her brightly colored silkscreen posters. Some of her work includes excerpts from the writings of Carl Jung, e.e. cummings and Rainer Maria Rilke. She began adding words to her designs because, she said, "I have been nuts about words and their shape since I was very young." Sister Mary Corita became one of our country's most celebrated artists and gained international fame through her creative, magical use of color and words. As a muralist, her critically acclaimed 40-foot mural for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair also brought her worldwide attention. She taught at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, the art department of which, under her creative direction, established itself as a center for the art of learning as well as the learning of art. Buckminster Fuller described his visit to the department as "among the most fundamentally inspiring experiences of my life." As a teacher, she was known as a challenger, a free-thinker, a celebrator, an encourager. She taught her students that one of the most important rules, when looking at art or watching films, was never to allow yourself to blink. One might miss something extremely valuable. And what the students cherished most about her competence as a teacher was that she always made eye-contact with each individual, giving herself to each charge entirely. Perhaps becoming a celebrity came too soon for the nun. It was something she never asked to be, but she carried the burdens of stardom with grace, kindness, and loving warmth. She never was arrogant, and accepted the status because she believed it would help the College of the Immaculate Heart where she was teaching, and she thought it would be good for her community of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sister Corita became a symbol of the modern nun and was often the target of conservative Catholics, particularly when she turned to regular street dress...
Category

Late 20th Century Feminist Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Sister Corita Kent Original Serigraph, 1970, “To Believe in God”
By Corita Kent
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Original serigraph by sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986). Titled “To Believe in God” or “Rules are Fair.” Created 1970. Measures 23 x 22 ½. Frame 29 1/4 x 29 1/4 Poem quoted: “Rules are Fair” by Ugo Betti (1892-1953) Italian judge, author, poet and playwright. Ed: 200. Signed Lower Right. Numbered and titled lower left. Kent was a nun and art teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Her departure from the school (and the order) in 1968, was partially related to tension between the order and the church over the progressive reforms of the Vatican II movement, but it was also timed with her own artistic commitments and rising renown. Throughout the 1960s, she made radio and TV appearances and lectured around the country. Before Warhol made the medium famous, she was working in serigraphy (screen-printing) because it could be cheaply mass-produced and widely disseminated. Her lively, colorful works speak through graphic simplicity as they combine Bible verses, brand logos, literary quotes, and even Beatles lyrics...
Category

Late 20th Century Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Corita Kent Original Serigraph, "B is for B Ins" with Poem by W.H. Auden
By Corita Kent
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Original serigraph by sister mary Corita Kent (1918-1986) titled “B is for Be In.” This work is from her alphabet series - circa 1960's. Quote by W.H. Auden (1907 - 1973) British/American Poet - “Can Sixty Make Sense of Sixteen - Plus?” Pencil Signed lower right “Corita.” Nicely framed and in excellent condition. Measures: Image size: 10" H x 16 1/2" W. Frame size: 29 1/4" H x 23 1/4" W. Kent was a nun and art teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Her departure from the school (and the order) in 1968, was partially related to tension between the order and the church over the progressive reforms of the Vatican II movement, but it was also timed with her own artistic commitments and rising renown. Throughout the 1960s, she made radio and TV appearances and lectured around the country. Before Warhol made the medium famous, she was working in serigraphy (screen-printing) because it could be cheaply mass-produced and widely disseminated. Her lively, colorful works speak through graphic simplicity as they combine Bible verses, brand logos, literary quotes, and even Beatles lyrics...
Category

1960s Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Sister Corita Kent If a Man Quote Signed Serigraph
By Corita Kent
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
For your consideration is a groovy, retro style serigraph titled Inspirational Quote and hand signed in pencil in the bottom right by beloved artist Sister Corita Kent...
Category

Mid-20th Century Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Sister Corita Kent Understanding Signed Serigraph
By Corita Kent
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
For your consideration is a groovy, retro, pop art style serigraph titled Understanding and hand signed in pencil in the bottom right by beloved artist Sister Corita Kent...
Category

20th Century Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

We Can Create Life Without War by Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) (INV# NP3220)
By Corita Kent
Located in Morton Grove, IL
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) We Can Create Life Without War Serigraph Print Image: 14.75 x 18" Frame: 23.13 x 26.13 x 1" 1984 Signed and inscribed to lower edge 'without war AP C...
Category

1980s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

I Love You Very by Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) (INV# NP3219)
By Corita Kent
Located in Morton Grove, IL
Corita Kent I Love You Very Serigraph Print Image; 11.88 x 11.88" Frame: 18.5 x 18.25 x 1" 1971 Signed and numbered to lower edge ‘ed 200 Corita’.
Category

1970s Contemporary Corita Kent Art

Materials

Screen

Sister Mary Corita Kent Limited Edition Signed Large Abstract Serigraph Print
By Corita Kent
Located in Studio City, CA
Known as God's own Pop artist, Sister Mary Corita Kent went straight from high school into convent life in 1936. While serving her order and teaching art at Immaculate Heart College ...
Category

1960s American Modern Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Sister Mary Corita Kent, Abstract Watercolor Painting, Signed, Acrylic Frame
By Corita Kent
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Here we have a small watercolor by the well known Sister Mary Corita. She is very well known for a massive production of serigraphs, as she like to make ar...
Category

1970s American Modern Vintage Corita Kent Art

Materials

Paper

Corita Kent art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Corita Kent art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Corita Kent in screen print, lithograph, offset print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Pop Art style. Not every interior allows for large Corita Kent art, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Oyvind Fahlstrom, Matt Gondek, and Bob Pardo. Corita Kent art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $550 and tops out at $5,500, while the average work can sell for $3,000.
Questions About Corita Kent Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Corita Kent is an American artist known for her work in pop art. A former nun. Corita Kent’s work focused on key themes such as Christianity and social justice Corita Kent primary medium is silk screen and is a self-taught artist. Shop a selection of Corita Kent artwork on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All