Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, has declared November 20th, 2015, to be Corita Kent Day across the city.
According to Art News, the move is part of a bid to recognise what would have been the late nun and artist’s 97th birthday.

Peace, love, and art

Sister Mary Corita Kent was well known for allowing her advocacy of peace and love to permeate into many of her works.
Perhaps her most striking piece was her image for the1985 U.S. Postal Service stamp, which simply read “Love”. Kent’s political and social beliefs were easy to see due to the simplicity of her works. The pieces she created packed a punch without being shackled by the chains of pretentiousness.
As a result, many people from across the US began to connect with her works, which in turn began to elevate themselves to being somewhat larger than life.
The best demonstration of this point is Kent’s “Rainbow Swash”, which covers a 150-foot gas tank in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The sheer size of it means it would be ludicrous for anyone to go about imitating it and yet it remains at the top of the list for the largest copyrighted artworks in the world.
Kent’s influence has endured impressively over the years, with present-day punters still enthused by her style and her clear belief that art can indeed have a positive impact on the world around us.
Unsurprisingly, many of her pieces reached the height of their popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, but the honour from the city of Boston shows her legacy is still going strong.
A post on Harvard Art Museum’s Facebook page read: “The proclamation is a reminder to Bostonians of the special individual that was Corita Kent and the impact that her legacy has had on generations.”

A star-studded classroom

Kent’s ability to influence others made her a great teacher. During her time at Immaculate Heart College in Los Feliz, California, where a distinguished list of students included the likes of at Immaculate Heart College in Los Feliz, California, where her students included Alfred Hitchcock, John Cage, Saul Bass, Buckminster Fuller, and Charles and Ray Eames.
But while many will be speculating about the role played by Kent in helping to start their careers, art was always going to be the part of her legacy that people remembered the most.
The Harvard Art Museums is currently running an exhibition titled “Corita Kent and the Language of Pop,” which runs until January 3rd, 2016.
It will then arrive at the San Antonio Museum of Art on February 13th, 2016 and run until May 8th of the same year.