Nun with a mission
Her work is held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and New York’s Whitney and Metropolitan museums, among others, and she is considered a Pop Art contemporary of Andy Warhol. Her bright silkscreens and watercolors challenged poverty, hunger, racism, and the war in Vietnam, all the while unironically embracing love. Artist, activist, and nun – yes, nun – Sister Corita Kent (1918–1986) began her art career in Los Angeles while in the order Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an order that became known for its counterculture values in the 1960s.
Sister Corita, a beloved teacher from 1947 on, ran the art department at Immaculate Heart College from 1964 to 1984, now the campus of the American Film Institute. She was known for pushing her students to move beyond their perceived limits and embrace their creative spirits. She organized a lecture series for her students called Great Men, inviting artists of all kinds, including John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Alfred Hitchcock, and the dynamic design duo Ray and Charles Eames to share their thoughts, theories, life experiences, and work practices.
Info
Address Immaculate Heart High School, 5515 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028, +1 323.450.4650, www.corita.org, info@corita.org | Getting there Free parking on exercise field. Enter via the American Film Institute parking entrance on Franklin, then continue 30 feet to high-school parking kiosk. Security will direct you. | Hours Mon–Fri 10am–4pm| Tip The hike to Bronson Caves (3200 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068), in Griffith Park, is an easy quarter mile walk. The man-made caves were used in many films and television shows, most notably as Adam West’s “Bat Cave” for the 1960s TV series Batman.
Corita Art Center is located in an unassuming building on the campus of Immaculate Heart High School. It’s more a long hallway lined with Kent’s framed artworks than a gallery proper, with an additional room that holds a collection of prints in flat files. Make an appointment in advance to view the works in the archives, some of which are available for purchase; prices range from $200 to just under $3000 for an original. A list of prints for sale can be found in the Corita Art Center vestibule gift shop.
Sister Corita Kent left the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1968. The majority of the sisters were to follow two years later, when their effort to reform their charter, which included shedding their wool habits, was denied by the Archbishop of Los Angeles.
Back
To the online map