king's dream
Until 1968, Kent was the chair of the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. The social and political upheaval of that year—marked by student revolts, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and widespread condemnation of the Vietnam War—caused Kent to leave the Catholic Church and her position at the college after three decades as a nun. Her work also became more explicitly political around this time. The top portion of king’s dream features a statement Martin Luther King made in 1962. It reads, "It may get me crucified. I may even die. But I want it said that he died to make men free." Created a year after the civil rights leader’s assassination, the print assumes a poignant tone. Its red, white, and blue palette evokes the American flag, and its thickset typeface and vertical format recall old-fashioned handbills, broadsides, and other items of Americana. But any stability associated with such national symbols is destabilized by the off-kilter positioning of the letters and frenetic, almost violent, application of red and blue ink.
Artwork Details
- Title: king's dream
- Artist: Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Screenprint
- Dimensions: 22 1/2 × 12 in. (57.2 × 30.5 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: John B. Turner Fund, 2025
- Object Number: 2025.732
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
ca. 1953
Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
ca. 1950–56
Corita Kent (American, Fort Dodge, Iowa 1919–1986 Boston, Massachusetts)
1964
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