Corita Kent and the Language of Pop

by Susan Dackerman, Jennifer L. Roberts, Richard Meyer

Known widely as a Catholic nun with an avant-garde flair, Corita Kent (1918–1986) has a personal legacy that has tended to overshadow her extensive career as an artist. This handsomely illustrated catalogue places Kent in her rightful position among the foremost figures of pop art, such as Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, and Roy Lichtenstein. Although Kent has been largely excluded from the academic and critical discourses surrounding 1960s American art, this publication reevaluates her importance and highlights how her work questioned and expanded the boundaries of the pop art movement.
 
Four essays and nearly 90 catalogue entries pull together a variety of topics—art history, religion, politics, linguistics, race, gender, mass media, and advertising—that influenced Kent’s life and work during the 1960s. Eminent pop scholars delve into the relationship between her art and that of her contemporaries, and explore how her art both responded to and advanced the changes in modern-day Catholicism stemming from Vatican II. More than 200 vibrant images showcase Kent’s ingenious screenprints, which often combine handwritten text and commercial imagery. Offering an unparalleled, rigorous study of an artist who has been largely overlooked, this book is an important contribution to scholarship as well as a fascinating presentation of Kent and her work to a wider audience.

Genres: Art

Paperback

First published September 22, 2015

Reviews

[Karen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

It'a Waitangi weekend and I took advantage of it and completely indulged myself and deep dove into some books I've had on my coffee table for sometime.
It was such a treat. I love art, don't know too much, and my heart lives and breathes 20th century art.
For some time I have been reading up on Corita Kent. This book I shouted myself last year. Its mint. Look her up. I am scouring the poster sites at present I can one quite reasonably.
To those of us who were teens in the 60's this is what shaped us.

[Katie Nairne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corita Kent was an incredible artist and activist - this book sets her work in the context of pop art, alongside images of work by her contemporaries. Some of the essays can be overly pretentious and hard to decipher but there's some interesting stuff in there.

[Erika W. Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for work - a really comprehensive and visually stunning look at Corita Kent’s work, focusing on the ‘60s and ‘70s. I do wish there’d been a little bit of her work in the ‘50s and ‘80s, just for comparison’s sake.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

EMOTICON! EMOTICON!