peache bread
peache bread is a consummate example of Sister Mary Corita Kent’s works of the mid-1960s, which evoke commercial imagery and touch on religious and social justice themes. At center, the words "BREAD" and "PEACHE[S]" overlay "88[¢]," summoning the appearance of supermarket window signs. At left, vertical bands of green and orange combine an inventory of food products that reads like a shopping list ("fish, wheat, figs") with references to Catholicism and food insecurity. These include celebrations mentioned in the parables of Jesus, and a quote about the impoverished from U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 State of the Union Address, in which he stated, "Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity."
Kent, the chair of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, was best known for works that recode the imagery of post-World War II American consumer culture to reflect the progressive form of Catholicism that she practiced, which was rooted in social justice. Working primarily in screenprint, she often drew on the technical and compositional strategies of Pop art. For example, peache bread calls attention to the screenprint process by which the work was made—an approach also taken up by Andy Warhol. By printing "PEACH[S]" in positive and "BREAD" in negative, Kent highlighted the graphic forms of the letters, and the rough-edged green and orange bands at right reflect the strips of cut and torn paper used to make stencils for the screen.
Kent, the chair of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, was best known for works that recode the imagery of post-World War II American consumer culture to reflect the progressive form of Catholicism that she practiced, which was rooted in social justice. Working primarily in screenprint, she often drew on the technical and compositional strategies of Pop art. For example, peache bread calls attention to the screenprint process by which the work was made—an approach also taken up by Andy Warhol. By printing "PEACH[S]" in positive and "BREAD" in negative, Kent highlighted the graphic forms of the letters, and the rough-edged green and orange bands at right reflect the strips of cut and torn paper used to make stencils for the screen.
Artwork Details
- Title: peache bread
- Artist: Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
- Date: 1964
- Medium: Screenprint
- Dimensions: 24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: John B. Turner Fund, 2025
- Object Number: 2025.730
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
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Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
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