Corita Kent
(1918 - 1986)
At the age of eighteen, Francis Elisabeth Kent joined the Roman Catholic order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles and became who we now know as Corita Kent. Most popularly known simply as "Sister Corita," Kent studied art history at the University of Southern California, and went on to chair the art department at the Immaculate Heart College where she taught. Devoting all of her time to her art, she dedicated her work to promoting a message of love and peace. Sister Corita's work consists almost exclusively of serigraphs (screen prints) with brightly colored pop imagery most often combined with a quote or text speaking about love, peace, freedom, and justice.
In 1968 she left monastic life and moved to Boston, where she continued her creative activities and goals of social justice. Some of this work was commissioned by commercial and non-profit corporations for advertisements, but all of it centered on the themes she had always espoused.
Sister Corita died in 1986 of cancer.
