2008.191: pieta 1969

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2008.191

People

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita), American (Fort Dodge, Iowa 1918 - 1986 Boston, Massachusetts)

Title

pieta 1969

Classification

Prints

Work Type

print

Date

1969

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/328985

Physical Descriptions

Technique

Screen print

Dimensions

57.15 x 29.21 cm (22 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: l.r.: Corita
• (not assigned): Printed text reads: We shall honor him not with useless mourning and vain regrets for the past, but with the firm and indomitable resolutions for the future: acting now to relieve the starvation of people in this country, working now to aid the disadvantaged and those helpless, inarticulate masses for whom he worked long hours, night as well as day. Rose Kennedy
  ...It's me again. I've learned a really great thing. It's something you told me before but I couldn't really feel that way then. But tonight I was listening to Sen. Kennedy's mother on TV and she was talking about her son's love of living but it was in such a great human way, so unpretentious that it helped me see that one of the great qualities of the Kennedy's was that they were so reachable. In the middle of destruction was this great creative force always there and always an honest statement of a really human responsive entity who wasn't hiding behind a bureaucracy or a static position. Then I started thinking about how many times I walk around and people talk to me but I am not there. I'm not honestly responding. I want to try to develop some of the Kennedy quality. It is so easy to fall apart when surrounded by destruction. Now I can see what you meant when you said we have to create. It's the only thing we can do. I read a book, The Spinster by Sylvia Baton Warner. You're probably familiar with it. What impressed me so much about it was that Sylvia helped the children find channels to express their aggressions in a creative rather than a destructive way. That's what we have to do. We have to revolutionize the dead lump called the present educational system from Dick & Jane into an alive process not a product...And help other people learn to be creative rather than destructive. With this we could change the world. One person can do a lot. Two people can do even more. Since I listened to Mrs. Kennedy I have faith. This is the first time for many years that I really do have faith. Now when I consider and feel what have been mere words that once seemed idiotically ideal and illusory---faith, hope and charity---these words become my essence. They become the whole. When life is so absurd you have to make a choice about living---Yes or no---and if it's no then end your life but if it is yes throw yourself right into it and say yes to every second and yes to any one second is yes to the whole of existence. This is what you and Mrs. Kennedy have helped me learn. Love, (a student)
  
• inscription: l.l., in graphite: 68-69-59

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund

Copyright

© Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Accession Year

2008

Object Number

2008.191

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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