RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRIT

Galerie Allen, Paris, is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of American pre-pop artist Corita Kent (1918 – 1986). Titled RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRIT, this exhibition exposes the progressive work for peace, tolerance and equality of this singular artist rarely exposed in France. Today, Kent?s message of peaceful protest seems as important as ever.

Corita Kent was a Catholic nun, artist, educator, community leader, pop pioneer, and, no less, political activist. Particularly prolific as an artist in the 1960s, Kent?s art-as-protest put her at odds with the Archbishop of Los Angeles during this turbulent period in America?s history. A devout child of Christ, Kent?s approach to spirituality and leadership may not have appeared traditional but was pure, direct and potent. Though God?s word and work could not be construed as at odds with peace, freedom, community and justice, her progressive outlook prompted pressure from the church and at the end of the decade she took a sabbatical that spurred some of her most impactful work. She did not return to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Although Kent's political activism was deemed inappropriate by the Catholic church, her anti-war art embodied the basic Biblical teachings of ?peace towards all? and ?love thy neighbour? ? albeit in a unconventional way. Through the use of sun-drenched acid colours, flickering psychedelic motifs, advertising-rich typography, counter-culture sloganing, rock-music riffing and the words of like-minded thinkers Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Dan and Phil Berrigan and Ghandi, Kent inspired a generation of Americans and continues to elicit attention and admiration to this day.

As a nun in a habit, Kent may not have fit in seamlessly with the hippies of counter-culture California, but neither did she fit the mould of the church. Her powerful and singular approach set her apart as a bold and brave revolutionary of peace. Kent was an iconoclast and visionary who succeeded in making a difference. Her work lives on, and still seems incredibly contemporary.

The exhibition Corita Kent, RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRIT, presents some of Kent's most powerful political messages from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Focusing on the peaceful protest of her work, the exhibition includes texts borrowed from some of the most influential thinkers of the period, many of whom were her friends or colleagues. The exhibition includes two intriguing works that aligned the artist with political candidates Daniel Ellsberg and Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. We also see the recently digitised and re-mastered film, Mary's Day 1965 of Corita?s procession in the Los Angeles community by Baylis Glascock, and a re-discovered intimate reveal of her work in the studio by Thomas Conrad titled Alleluia.