Benedictio 1954

Curator: Here we have Corita Kent's "Benedictio," a 1954 screenprint bursting with color and form. What strikes you first about this piece? Editor: The way those colors fight and then embrace. It feels tumultuous yet celebratory, like a controlled explosion. All that energetic mark-making using screenprinting techniques... Curator: Indeed. Kent, a sister in the Immaculate Heart Community, embraced printmaking as a medium accessible for conveying messages and spreading art. Screenprinting allowed her to explore layering, bold colors, and repetition, challenging traditional artistic hierarchies. Notice the visible process, each layer intentionally placed. Editor: Right. The layering of the inks reminds me of illuminated manuscripts, echoing visual traditions. It certainly hints at religious imagery with those monumental abstracted forms. Look at how the partial words float—BENEDICTIO itself broken into components. Do you think she's evoking traditional blessing ceremonies? Curator: I believe so, and I'm also keen on examining how Kent democratized the means of art production, pushing printmaking’s capabilities for broad social engagement during that time period. The visual syntax here hints at transcendence. The image embodies that very tension of its creation: between craft and divine inspiration. Editor: Yes, absolutely, but also notice how it plays on contrasts. The fragmented word, juxtaposed with swirling strokes of ink, might evoke themes of brokenness but always infused with divine intention or perhaps hope? Even with these intense oranges and purples, there is always a quiet sense of grace. Curator: "Benedictio", in its making, reflects a powerful merging of the spiritual and the material. The use of everyday, accessible material elevates the work to create that tangible expression of faith. Editor: Looking again I also find the image is both unsettling and oddly comforting—suggesting the human search for the ineffable—rendered vividly on the printing table. I like what this image gives back in terms of its complexities. Curator: Indeed. Thank you, these ideas shed new light on its purpose, method and possible interpretations!