Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images

Corita Kent (1918–1986) was a Catholic nun, artist, and influential art educator who merged faith, activism, and creative experimentation. Teaching at Immaculate Heart College from 1947 to 1968, she developed a distinctive visual language through serigraph (silkscreen printing) that synthesized Pop Art aesthetics with social and spiritual messaging. Her work combined typography, vibrant color palettes, and imagery drawn from advertising, urban landscapes, and popular culture. Beyond her celebrated prints, Kent maintained an extensive photographic practice, capturing over fifteen thousand 35mm slides of Los Angeles urban environments, college events, vernacular objects, and overlooked moments. These photographs functioned as both a personal visual archive and direct source material for her artistic compositions, documenting her idiosyncratic way of seeing the world with joyful attention to color, pattern, and cultural texture.