Why Don't You Think of Him

Artist

Sister Mary Corita Kent (American, 1918 – 1986)

Date

1971

Medium

Lithograph

Dimensions

Mat : 32 x 40 in. (81.28 cm x 1 m)

Credit Line

Hope College Collection

Object Number

2015.17

Label

Mary Corita Kent joined the Roman Catholic order of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary shortly after graduating from high school in 1936. After earning college degrees in art and art history, Kent joined the art faculty of Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and taught there for thirty years. During the 1960s and 70s, Kent won national recognition for her politically and socially charged prints that combined words and images in innovative ways. The text on this print comes from a famous 1903 letter written by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. It begins: “Why don’t you think of him as the one who is coming, who has been approaching for all eternity, the one who will someday arrive, the ultimate fruit of the tree whose leaves we are?”