The Beginning of Miracles 1953

Corita Kent made this print, "The Beginning of Miracles", and you can see she's working with a loaded palette and an energetic approach to mark making. It’s all about layering and building up an image through a process of adding and subtracting. The colors are muted but create a vibrant surface. Look at the way she uses thin layers of transparent inks, allowing the colors underneath to peek through. There is a real physicality to the piece. See that central pair of figures? There's something very direct and honest about the way Kent renders them. The faces have a simplified, almost childlike quality, but they convey a deep sense of humanity. This print reminds me of work by Robert Rauschenberg, particularly his use of silkscreening to combine disparate images and create complex, layered compositions. Just like Rauschenberg, Kent embraces ambiguity, leaving room for multiple interpretations.