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 Artists who lived in Dorchester are given separate entries.
The biggest copyrighted piece of work in the country is the giant rainbow design by artist Corita Kent on the Gas Tank in Dorchester. Corita Kent who lived from 1918 to 1986 was a muralist and printmaker. She was also a nun who left the Sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1968. She designed greeting cards, book jackets, record covers, poster and exhibits. Although she is not a Dorchester artist, the very size of the painting on the Gas Tank makes it a landmark, identifying Dorchester to the traveler on the Southeast Expressway.
Commissioned in 1971 to turn one of two large natural-gas tanks into her canvas, Kent produced the rainbow design. Some who looked closely at the blue stripe saw a profile of Ho Chi Minh, speculating that Kent added a political statement to the piece in protest of the Vietnam War. Kent never mentioned this, and Boston Gas representatives denied any political tinge. When the tank with the painting was torn down in 1992, the design was repainted on the remaining tank and the Ho Chi Minh profile is much less visible.
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Here are some images from the Atheneum archive related to this topic. Click on any of these images to open a slideshow of all 103 images.
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Created: July 24, 2003 Modified: July 19, 2004
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