Nun-Pop!

In the sixties, an unlikely art activist emerged in Los Angeles teaching with impassioned dedication and style at the private Catholic college Immaculate Heart.  Sister Mary Corita, a radical in her own right, instructed students through mediums of collage, illustration, sewing, and serigraph to celebrate both the images from their community and the words of the gospel while showing them how to look at the world in new ways.  

Last night, Sister Corita's vivid hues and bold words popped, rolled and tumbled across three screens at the Hammer Museum in one of the first exhibitions of director Aaron Rose's short film "Becoming a Microscrope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita".  The screening was part of the Flux screening series.  

  

Vibrantly inspiring, the short film "Becoming a Microscope" features former students of Sister Corita speaking about her teaching methods and passion for life boldly identifiable in the bright messages of her art.   The film also touches on Corita's departure from the order in 1968.  At the peak of her notoriety in 1968, (she was featured on Christmas issue cover of Newsweek in '67) she said farewell to her students and the creative community she had become apart of that included influential friends Alfred Hitchcock, Buckminister Fuller and Charles Eames.  

She continued her art in Boston where she lived and painted for the rest of her life.  Perhaps her best known work is the pastel heart and rainbow that appeared on a 1985 postage stamp (shown above).  For those interested in seeing Sister Corita's early serigraphs, an exhibit at CSUN's Main Art Gallery in Northridge runs until April 4.  Details on the exhibits can be found here.  For Montana dwellers and visitors, Sign Language -another Corita-full exhibit- runs until June 13 at the Missoula Art Museum.  More info. here.