In celebration of L.A.’s iconic Pop Art movement, a new cultural center honoring the legacy of Corita Kent has officially opened its doors. The Corita Art Center is dedicated to promoting causes like racial equality and women’s rights through art.
Corita Kent was a pioneering figure in postwar American art who used serigraphy as a tool to promote causes like racial equality and women’s rights. Her work bridged the worlds of Pop Art, social activism, and spiritual reflection.
Corita Kent was an American artist, educator, and activist known for her vibrant 'pop art' prints and posters.
Born in Iowa in 1918, Kent studied fine arts at the Art Institute of Chicago before becoming a nun with the Immaculate Heart of Mary order.
She used her artistic talents to promote social justice causes, including civil rights and anti-war movements.
Kent's work often featured bold colors and playful typography, making her prints highly collectible.
Her art has been exhibited worldwide, cementing her legacy as a pioneering figure in American 'pop art' .
The Life and Work of Corita Kent
Born Frances Elizabeth Kent, she took the name Sister Mary Corita when she entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious order at 18. Pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Immaculate Heart College and joining the university’s art department faculty, Kent earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Southern California while teaching herself printmaking. Her earliest works were religious in nature, but as Pop swept the art world, she began to borrow themes from advertising and secular music and literature.
One 1964 print, ‘the juiciest tomato of all,’ was both a play on the Del Monte tomatoes slogan and a call for the church to modernize its view on the Virgin Mother. While her name may not carry the same weight as contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Kent’s brightly colored prints that combined popular culture with societal and religious critiques were shown at more than 230 exhibitions in the 1960s.
A Legacy of Activism and Art
Kent was a significant figure in American graphic arts in her own time. She was also a fiery advocate for change, creating thousands of posters, murals, and serigraphs in support of civil rights, feminism, and the anti-war movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her prints can be found in the collections of institutions like LACMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Met.
The Corita Art Center is not itself new—it was first founded in 1997 in a small hallway on the Immaculate Heart High School campus. On International Women’s Day (March 8), it officially moved to its own dedicated space in the L.A. art district at 811 Traction Avenue. To commemorate the center’s opening, the center’s board of directors wrote in a statement that its “new chapter invites everyone to participate in building a world of justice, creativity, and possibility, where hope is created through collective action.”
The Corita Art Center Opens Its Doors
The center’s opening exhibition, on view by appointment, is ‘Heroes and Sheroes.’ It’s the first L.A. exhibition to show that series in its entirety: twenty-nine prints made from 1968 to 1969 honoring historic figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, John F. Kennedy, and Cesar Chavez—people who changed the course of history with their courage, just as Kent bravely changed the world through her practice and mentorship.
A Lasting Impact
Kent’s assertion that ‘Doing and making are acts of hope’ resonates deeply in today’s America. Her work continues to inspire artists, educators, and activists around the world. As we face a new era of uncertainty in both the arts and politics, Kent’s legacy serves as a reminder of the power of art to challenge norms and create positive change.
