Nun of a Kind



Kent’s "Highly Prized," silkscreen

The Big G Stands for Goodness: Corita Kent’s 1960s Pop

Beaver College Art Gallery, 450 South Easton Road, Glenside, through Dec. 20, 215-572-2133

This exhibition features the work of Sister Corita Kent (1918-1986), an unlikely but influential pop artist who made big-hearted prints from advertising slogans – all in service to her faith in God and her social conscience. She was also a politically active nun and teacher who made the cover of Newsweek.

These colorful silkscreen and offset prints were made during the 1960s when Kent lived in Los Angeles. For Eleanor, showing the slogan "The Big G stands for goodness" amid red and white stripes, suggests an upbeat American flag. Enriched Bread juxtaposes the words from a Wonder Bread label with a quote from Camus, "Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves.…" The crisp primary colors and wide white spaces of the composition give a sense of openness and possibility. Be Patient, a splendid print in ochre, olive and bright magenta, advises us "Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart…" (Rilke) and tweaks us with the word "ornery" backwards in big bold letters.

Wonder woman: Kent’s Enriched Bread, silkscreen

The show reveals a transition from the high spirits in Kent’s early prints, to the earnest political activism in the later pieces. In Memory of RFK suggestively combines Bobby Kennedy’s image and words with Christ crowned with thorns over a vivid magenta ground. Another print from the same period layers an image of a very yellow, very grainy Pope with the words "let the sun shine in" and a pointed quote about the creative revolution. American Sampler, an oppressive page of densely packed words (American, I can I can, Assassin, Vietnam), expresses the pain and confusion of the Vietnam War.

Curated by Los Angeles critic Michael Duncan, the exhibition also includes text-based works by fellow pop artists like Ed Ruscha and Philip Hefferton, and contemporary Los Angeles artists that may have been influenced by Kent’s work, from Alexis Smith to Raymond Pettibon. Mike Kelley’s glued felt banner, The Escaped Bird, might be an ironic tribute to Kent (and the post-Vatican II Catholic period). Although Kent left her order in 1968, the flamboyant style of her prints spread rapidly through liberal Catholic churches and its effects can still be seen today.

Like other pop artists, Kent found ambiguity lurking in the language of advertising but she sifted out a completely different message. Her prints show that the divine is an everyday occurrence and that, with the right attitude, you can even see it on a box of Wheaties.

—Susan Hagen