Corita Kent, phil and dan, from the heroes & sheroes series, 1969 serigraph, image Courtesy of Corita Art Center, corita.org
Throughout the 1960s, Corita’s artwork began to include political undertones and messages related to social justice. Between 1968 and 1969 Corita produced a series of 29 prints titled “a set of heroes and sheroes.” This series represents a shift in her work towards more overtly political content, with direct references to contemporary social movements, civil rights, and political violence. There is also a formal shift in the work, with many of the prints incorporating photographic images from newspapers and magazines. Begun while on sabbatical and before she left the order, this series allows viewers to understand Corita’s viewpoint in regards to the political turmoil of the 1960s.
phil and dan depicts a news photograph of Jesuit priests, Philip and Daniel Berrigan, burning draft records at a Selective Service Office in Catonsville, Maryland on May 17, 1968 in protest of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam. The draft records were burned with napalm, a flammable jellied gas that symbolized the destructive warfare used by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. Philip and Daniel Berrigan were part of a group known as the Cantonsville Nine, Catholic peace activists who engaged in draft file burnings to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Following their demonstration, the Cantonsville Nine were arrested and Father Philip Berrigan became the first Catholic priest to serve a sentence as a political prisoner in the history of the United States. While Father Daniel Berrigan faced a three year sentence in prison, he went into hiding to avoid arrest. He was eventually apprehended by the FBI and served his sentence as a political prisoner until his release in 1972.
Father Daniel Berrigan was a close friend of Corita Kent. They collaborated on several occasions with Kent creating illustrations for his published poetry. The influence of this friendship on Corita’s political beliefs and social awareness can be seen in her work of the 1960s. Elaborating on the nature of her social activism of this period, Corita stated,“I couldn’t march and be in the public that way. I had to bring into the work…the idea that using words with visual forms and using just short passages is often a way to help awaken people to something they may not be aware of, rather than enclosing it in a book or making a speech.” In the “heroes and sheroes” series, Philip and Daniel Berrigan appear alongside many other influential and revolutionary figures of the decade, including Coretta Scott King, Cesar Chavez, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
-Nathan Howard ‘25