Let Him Step to the Music
Let Him Step to the Music
Sister Mary Corita Kent
American, 1918 - 1986
1971
Serigraph
22 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. (57.1 x 57.1 cm)
Bands of hand-lettered Hebrew-inflected text in blue, green, yellow, and red move across the sheet in Corita's signature rounded, hand-painted script. The work takes its title and text from Thoreau's Walden (1854): "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." The line, one of the most quoted passages in American letters, suits Corita's lifelong interest in pairing found and literary language with bold, joyful color. A former nun and longtime head of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, Corita became one of the defining figures of American Pop art, and her serigraphs are held in the collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the Smithsonian.
Artist bio
Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986) was an American artist, educator, and activist whose exuberant, text-based serigraphs made her one of the defining figures of American Pop art. She entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary order at eighteen and went on to teach and later chair the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, where she developed her signature style: brightly colored silkscreens layering advertising slogans, scripture, and literary quotation, often warped and cropped from photographed source material. Her work drew comparisons to peers like Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha, and by the late 1960s she was, by some accounts, the most famous nun in America. She left the religious order in 1968 but continued making art and advocating for peace and social justice until her death, earning the nickname "the joyous revolutionary" from photographer Ben Shahn. Her prints have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and hang in major museum collections nationwide; her best-known public work is the rainbow-striped Boston Gas tank in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Artist bio
Sister Mary Corita Kent (1918-1986) was an American artist, educator, and activist whose exuberant, text-based serigraphs made her one of the defining figures of American Pop art. She entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary order at eighteen and went on to teach and later chair the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, where she developed her signature style: brightly colored silkscreens layering advertising slogans, scripture, and literary quotation, often warped and cropped from photographed source material. Her work drew comparisons to peers like Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha, and by the late 1960s she was, by some accounts, the most famous nun in America. She left the religious order in 1968 but continued making art and advocating for peace and social justice until her death, earning the nickname "the joyous revolutionary" from photographer Ben Shahn. Her prints have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and hang in major museum collections nationwide; her best-known public work is the rainbow-striped Boston Gas tank in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
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