power up (D)
Corita Kent, power up (B), 1965, color screenprint on Pellon, The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, © Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA, 86.13.568
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
power up (D)
- Artist
- Date
1965
- Medium
color screenprint on Pellon
- Edition
edition of 100
- Catalogue Raisonné
CAC 65-15
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
28 7/8 in x 35 1/8 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
signature: Sister Mary Corita, black ink, lower right
- Collection Area
Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
- Object Type
stencil print
- Culture
American
- Credit Line
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection
- Accession Number
91.84.291
- Copyright
© Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA
- Terms
Corita Kent's signature style is marked by a playful combination of sources in the service of the common good, as seen in this iconic work. Here Kent borrowed the slogan of Richfield Oil Corporation and married it to a sermon by activist priest Daniel Berrigan. Berrigan's text focuses on the power of bread—both literally as a foodstuff and metaphorically as a social agent and the mystical body of Christ, an outlook that Kent shared. As Kent explained, "POWER UP…stops being only a sign about gasoline and starts talking about bread that gives man's heart strength. The Word powers up and the Eucharist powers up."
Kent, who was motivated by a deeply held belief in social justice, often turned to food as a symbol for caring for the poor. This motif—and its many meanings as physical and spiritual sustenance—can be found in a number of her screenprints from the 1960s.
- Exhibitions
2016 Corita Kent: Spiritual Pop Portland Art Museum
