Corita Kent and the Language of Pop: Special Exhibit @ SAMA

THIS EVENT WAS CLOSED EARLY BECAUSE OF HAIL DAMAGE TO THE MUSEUM.

Artist. Educator. Roman-Catholic Nun. Corita Kent’s (American, 1918–1986) groundbreaking work as a pop artist combined faith, activism, and teaching with messages of acceptance and hope. “I am not brave enough to not pay my income tax and risk going to jail. But I can say rather freely what I want to say with my art,” said Kent of her cry for peace during the Vietnam Era.

While Kent’s work was exhibited frequently and acclaimed, it did not receive the attention awarded her contemporaries. Kent was overlooked because women were often discounted as pop artists and because she lived and worked as a nun. In this exhibition, her art finally receives the attention it deserves: more than 60 of Kent’s prints will be on view alongside works by her prominent contemporaries including Robert Indiana, Jim Dine, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Organized by the Harvard Art Museums, the exhibition frames Kent’s work—screenprints, films, installations, Happenings, and her 1971 mural painted on the Boston Gas tank—within the pop art movement while considering other prevailing artistic, social, and religious movements of the time.

The exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and major corporate support from National Grid.

There is free general admission at SAMA Tuesdays from 4-9PM and Sundays from 10-noon. There is a $10 fee to attend this exhibit.