The Beginning of Miracles: V 1953

Corita Kent created "The Beginning of Miracles: V" using screen printing, a technique she embraced for its accessibility and potential for mass communication. This print exemplifies Kent's signature style, combining bold graphics with textual elements, often drawn from religious and pop-cultural sources. Kent was a Roman Catholic nun, and her work was deeply informed by her faith and her commitment to social justice. Made in the United States, at a time of significant social upheaval, the piece reflects the artist's engagement with the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, and the call for peace and equality. It is worth considering how the piece appropriates the visual language of advertising and commercial design, subverting it to convey messages of hope and spiritual awakening. To understand Kent’s art fully, we might turn to the archives of the Immaculate Heart Community, the order to which she belonged, or to the vast literature on American religious art and the intersection of faith and activism. Her art reminds us that meaning is never fixed but is always shaped by the social and institutional contexts in which it is created and received.