Portrait of Catlett with Glasses, ca. 1955-65, Bernice Kolko
The Brooklyn Museum, in partnership with the National Gallery of Art, showcased the work and life of artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett in “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies: Elizabeth Catlett / Una artista negra revolucionaria con todo lo que ello implica: Elizabeth Catlett.” The exhibition of over 200 sculpture and print works not only presented the life and artistic work of Elizabeth Catlett, but also maintained a central focus on Black liberation, feminism, and transnational political solidarity, themes central to Catlett’s art and activism.
Born in Washington DC in 1915, Catlett was a feminist, social justice activist, sculptor, and printmaker. Following her graduation from Howard University in 1935, Catlett earned her Masters of Fine Art at the University of Iowa, learning from American Regionalist painter Grant Wood. In 1947, Catlett went to Mexico on the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship and developed her work, The Black Woman, an iconic series of 15 linoleum cuts depicting the everyday realities of Black women in the United States, including matriarchal and abolitionist figures, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Phillis Wheatley.
In Harriet Tubman I Helped Hundreds to Freedom / En Harriet Tubman, ayudé a cientos a alcanzar la libertad, 1946, Linocut on paper
“I wanted to show the history and strength of all kinds of Black women. Working women, country women, great women in the history of the United States.” — Elizabeth Catlett
While completing this project, Catlett married fellow artist Francisco Mora and settled in Mexico. Here, Catlett was heavily involved in the Taller de Gráfica Publica, a Mexican printmaking collective that prioritized political activism and accessible art to all socioeconomic classes. Due to Catlett’s unwavering justice work, support of Black radicalism, and ties to communism, the United States deemed her an undesirable alien in 1962 and her citizenship was not reinstated until 2002.
“While ultimately becoming a Mexican citizen, Catlett never lost sight of the Black liberation struggle in the United States. She embraced a political radicalism that merged the goals of the Black Left in the United States with the lessons of the Mexican Revolution and international feminist movements. Her transnational identity fueled a critical understanding that Black Americans and Mexicans were linked with other oppressed people around the world in a struggle against poverty, racism, and imperialism. As a result, she developed a rich visual language through which she articulated her solidarity politics across various media.” (Catlett Exhibition)
Sharecropper / Aparcera, 1946, oil on canvas
Sharecropper (male) / Aparcero, 1945, Linocut on paper
Catlett incorporates a variety of artistic strategies in her work that reveal her overarching goals of activism and solidarity. For example, she draws from Renaissance-era painting techniques to emphasize the dignity and strength of Black women, both presently and historically. This is most notably seen in Sharecropper (1946). In the print, the figure’s hat resembles a halo, crowning her in righteousness. Additionally, her tilted up head, long neck, and strong gaze reveal an aura of strength and regality. This positioning in juxtaposition to the figure’s role as a sharecropper speaks to Catlett’s intention of depicting the strength and dignity of Black women, even in the context of the injustice and violence they have been forced to endure.
Man / Hombre, 1975 (reprinted 2003), Woodcut and color linocut on paper
Catlett also uses her transnational and immigrant perspective to meld styles and visual strategies of Black America and Mesoamerica, as seen in the traditional Otomi patterns from Central Mexico in Catlett’s print, Man / Hombre (1975). The result of this practice creates “anticolonial, yet joyfully proud” work that amplifies non-western visual strategies that promote solidarity and unifying themes amongst Black Americans, Chicano Americans, and Mexicans, which also link to all oppressed peoples. (Catlett Exhibition)
Ecology is a central theme in Catlett’s work, and she explores sharecropping and forced agricultural labor in many of her most famous works, such as Sharecropper 1946 and Sharecropper (male) 1945. The juxtaposition of these pieces unites black sharecroppers in the United States with Indigenous campesinos, or indentured laborers, in the struggle against poverty, racism, and imperialism in the United States and Mexico.
“She unites the sharecropper’s and the campesino’s shared oppression: Black sharecroppers labored in debt peonage to white landowners in the United States, just as in Indigenous campesinos were forced to labor on plantations in Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” (Catlett Exhibition)
Catlett’s incredible artistic vision and ability, political activism, and commitment to art accessibility, prove her to be a defining artist of the 20th century. However, her work has historically not received the attention it deserved by the mainstream art world. This exhibit at The Brooklyn Museum, in partnership with the National Gallery of Art, addresses this gap, shining a focused light on the keenly observant and persistent artist who consistently addressed transnational solidarity and intersectional activism in her collected works throughout her long life.
The Migration Mapping project seeks to navigate the inner landscapes of migration, incorporating the movement of thoughts and ideas, images and information. This exhibition charts the movement of Catlett’s physical self, citizenship, inner life, and artistic work, while simultaneously centering themes of feminism, black radicalism, labor, ecology, and exile.
– MM
Further reading / viewing
Towns, Armond R. “Toward a Black Media Philosophy.” Cultural Studies (London, England) 34, no. 6 (2020): 851–73.
Tuggar, Fatimah. “Methods, Making, and West African Influences in the Work of Fatimah Tuggar.” African Arts 50, no. 4 (2017): 12–17.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. On Intersectionality: Essential Writings. New York: New Press, 2020.