Corita Kent

(American, 1918-1986)

Handle With Care and No Right to the Fruits (a pair of prints)

screenprints

each signed in pencil

largest 22 x 33 1/2 inches.

Property from The School Sisters of Notre Dame, being sold to benefit the organization

Provenance:

Gift from the artist to the School Sisters of Notre Dame

Lot Notes:

The bold screenprints of Corita Kent (1918-1986) visualized some of the most socially and politically turbulent times of the twentieth century. Using words and images culled from consumer culture, popular music, literature, and spiritual sources, Kent, as an artist and educator, advocated for just causes and became increasingly political throughout her career. She used neon colors and text ranging from Pop Art, The Beatles, poetry, and psalms to slogans and advertisements. With this work, she denounced assassinations and the Vietnam War while supporting the Civil Rights Movement and various political campaigns. These works and the 32 years that Kent spent in the religious order defined Kent’s enduring artistic persona as the “Painting Nun.”

Kent was born in Iowa in 1918 as Frances Elizabeth Kent. After she joined the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles at the age of 18, she took on the name Sister Mary Corita. She completed her undergraduate studies at the order-run Immaculate Heart College, later teaching art at the college for 22 years and eventually becoming the department head. While teaching, she finished her master’s studies at the University of Southern California and began screenprinting in 1951, her most employed medium. One reason that she appreciated serigraphy was that it allowed her work to be widely accessible. Her work became more politically engaged during the 1960s, and she reached international success. Among the press and attention she received, often with headlines gleefully reveling in her occupation as a nun, was Time’s Woman of the Year in 1966 and the cover of Newsweek on December 25, 1967 (“Sister Corita. The Nun: Going Modern”).

In 1967, she sought dispensation from her vows and left the religious order following a sabbatical brought on by exhaustion. She moved across the country to Boston but left on good terms, even leaving her remaining collection of works and copyright to the order following her death. In Boston, Kent worked on some of her largest and subsequently well-known commissions, while also battling cancer in 1974 and 1977. In 1971, she took a commission from the Boston Gas Company to paint an enormous gas tank visible from the Boston interstate. This work, of six stripes of color on a white background, was then the largest copyrighted artwork in the world. Kent returned to the use of six colored stripes in 1985, when creating a limited-edition postage stamp on love for the United States Postal Service, adding the words “Love is hard work”. The stamp proved very popular, but Kent protested the unveiling when she was told it would occur on the set of the TV show, “Love Boat,” a romantic comedy premised on new couples becoming romantically involved on every cruise. Hollywood love wasn’t what she had had in mind; rather, she had envisioned the stamp unveiled at the United Nations as a symbol of universal love—the kind that she had advocated for throughout her career. Kent passed away in 1986 in the wake of another bout with cancer. Her artistic style, dubbed “Hiroshima haiku” by journalist Linell Smith, as it combined “childlike calligraphy with deadly images,” galvanized the public and remains a spirited part of socio-political discourse today.

The impressive selection of works presented here were gifted to the School Sisters of Notre Dame by the artist and are being sold to benefit the organization.

- Smith, Linell. “The Painting Nun and the signs of our times.” The Evening Sun, May 1, 1985. Baltimore.

Handle With Care
22 x 33 1/2 inches.
23 x 33 3/4 inches.

No Right to the Fruits
22 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches.

Each with bumped corners, scuffs, toning and surface dirt throughout, creases near corners, and loss and tears to edges. Pinholes and corner loss to Handle With Care print. Please request additional images.

The physical condition of lots in our auctions can vary due to age, normal wear and tear, previous damage, and restoration/repair. All lots are sold "AS IS," in the condition they are in at the time of the auction, and we and the seller make no representation or warranty and assume no liability of any kind as to a lot's condition. Any reference to condition in a catalogue description or a condition report shall not amount to a full accounting of condition. Condition reports prepared by Freeman's staff are provided as a convenience and may be requested from the Department prior to bidding.

The absence of a posted condition report on the Freeman's website or in our catalogues should not be interpreted as commentary on an item's condition. Prospective buyers are responsible for inspecting a lot or sending their agent or conservator to inspect the lot on their behalf, and for ensuring that they have requested, received and understood any condition report provided by Freeman's.

Please email for any additional information or questions you may have regarding this lot.

To request further details about this lot, please email [email protected]

Joseph Stanfield

Senior Vice President, Director, Fine Art

[email protected]312.280.1212

As the head of Hindman’s Fine Art Department, Mr. Stanfield is instrumental in bringing in major consignments from private collectors, estates, dealers and institutions. He has led the department to dozens of auction records, with a particular focus on Chicago Modernism. Mr. Stanfield has played an integral role in the development of the American & European and Post War & Contemporary Art categories, with the most successful year for the department in company history coming in 2021. He also oversaw a house record for total sales for a week of Fine Art auctions in May 2022. Mr. Stanfield is also the lead auctioneer for the Fine Art sales at Hindman. Prior to returning to Hindman in 2019, he was at Toomey & Co. for eight years, where he oversaw important collections including the estate of Candice B. Groot, the collection of Governor Jim Thompson, and the estate of Robert E. Beck. Mr. Stanfield earned a BA from the University of Kansas where he studied Art History.

Zack Wirsum

SVP, Head of Department, Post War and Contemporary Art

[email protected]312.600.6069

Mr. Wirsum joined the firm in 2007 as a Fine Art registrar and became a department specialist in 2013, with a focus on Post War and Contemporary art. Through his vision, the department has achieved record breaking prices. Mr. Wirsum evaluates and appraises well over 5,000 works of art each year, collaborating with leading international committees and experts on authentication. Prior to joining Freeman's, Mr. Wirsum served as an assistant director and conservator at the Chicago Conservation Center. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a practicing painter with gallery representation.

Monica Brown

Managing Director, Vice President, Fine Art, Head of Department, Prints and Multiples

[email protected]303.825.1855

Ms. Brown rejoined the firm in 2019 as a senior specialist in the Fine Art department, where she has been the resident expert and Head of Sale for Prints and Multiples. She has over 17 years of art-market experience, most recently as founder of Monica Brown Fine Art. In addition to working for renowned auction houses, she has extensive knowledge in over five centuries of works on paper from her tenure at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and eight years of experience with one of London’s leading dealers of Pop Art editions.

Please email for any additional information or questions you may have regarding this lot.

Prints and Multiples

Handle With Care and No Right to the Fruits (a pair of prints)

Lot Description

Condition Report

Preview

Auction Contact

Shipping | Pickup