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Do you remember the “Love” stamp? Chances are you
do. The Postal Service put over 700,000,000 in circulation.
Behind its bright, simple colors is the complex story of a
remarkable woman. Sister Mary Corita became “the world’s
best-known teaching nun,” in the words of Time magazine,
via her innovative, highly creative art classes at LA’s
Immaculate Heart College. She became widely known for her
outrageous “happenings” and other unconventional
approaches to art, as well as her own unique style.
This
gifted artist blended Madison Avenue slogans, rock lyrics
and other bits of pop culture with a bold, fresh use of color.
But her growing fame as an artist, and her decision to put
her gift at the service of the civil rights and anti-war movements
in the 1960’s, led to an irreconcilable conflict with
archconservative Cardinal McIntyre. At the age of 50, after
32 years as a nun, she left the convent to become an independent
and highly successful artist. By the time of her death in
1986, her original silkscreens were in the permanent collections
of 37 major museums around the world.
PRIMARY
COLORS uses film and photographs, reminiscences of her friends,
her colorful works, and is narrated in Corita’s own words
by Eve Marie Saint.
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