Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Brion, Katherine
Area of Concentration
Art History
Abstract
Often identified with the Pop art movement during the 1960s, Corita Kent is distinguished for her silkscreen prints that juxtapose contemporary advertising imagery with traditional biblical themes. Less well-known are her prints produced before the Pop decade, which exhibit similar juxtapositional strategies between commercial and spiritual realms. Examining prints from her mid-century oeuvre, as well as the cultural contexts with which contemporary viewers likely would have been familiar, this thesis explores the evolution of Corita’s aesthetics of juxtaposition and the possible implications of its relationship to the modernization efforts of the Catholic Church under the directives of the Second Vatican Council. Further examination of their processes suggests Corita’s aesthetics of juxtaposition are an impulse to demonstrate to her viewer the significance of creative engagement. Revealing the potential of transformative aesthetic experience through juxtaposed pairings, her mid-century prints reference commercial imagery in a way that reveals the humanity behind their construction, affirming the agency of the individual within the oppressive dynamics of authoritarian structures.
Recommended Citation
Edmonds, Jessica, "PEPSI-COLA AND COMMUNION WAFERS: AESTHETICS OF JUXTAPOSITION IN CORITA KENT’S MID-CENTURY PRINTS" (2022). Theses & ETDs. 6217.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6217