Elizabeth Catlett
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Catlett Mora (born April 15, 1915) is an African-American sculptor
and printmaker. Catlett is best known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which are seen as politically charged.
, the youngest of three children. Both of her parents were teachers.
She attended the Lucretia Mott Elementary School, Dunbar High School
, and then Howard University
where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. In an interview in December 1981 in Artist and Influence magazine, she stated that she changed her major to painting because of the influence of James A. Porter, and because there was no sculpture division at Howard at the time. She received her BS cum laude from Howard in 1935. She then worked as a high school teacher in North Carolina but left after two years, frustrated by the low teaching salaries for black people.
While living and working in Harlem
, New York
, she was briefly married to Charles White
.
In 1947, she married Mexican artist Francisco Mora
, and made Mexico her permanent home, later becoming a Mexican citizen. They have three sons, including film director Juan Mora. Her granddaughter, Naima Mora
, was the Cycle 4 winner of the America's Next Top Model
television show. Catlett's sculpture, "Naima", is of Naima as a child.
Since retiring in 1975, she continues to be active in the Cuernavaca
, Mexico
art community.
. While there, she was influenced by American landscape painter Grant Wood
, who urged students to work with the subjects they knew best. For Catlett, this meant black people, and especially black women, and it was at this point that her work began to focus on African Americans. Her piece Mother and Child, done in limestone in 1939 for her thesis, won first prize in sculpture at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago in 1940.
She studied ceramics
at the Art Institute of Chicago
in 1941, lithography
at the Art Students League of New York
in 1942-1943, and with sculptor Ossip Zadkine
in New York in 1943.
located at 57 W. 125th St. Roy DeCarava
was one of the students. Some of the teachers included Ernest Crichlow
, Norman Lewis
, and Charles White
, who was for a time her husband.
In 1946 Catlett received a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship that allowed her to travel to Mexico
where she studied wood carving with Jose L. Ruiz and ceramic sculpture with Francisco Zúñiga
, at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, Esmeralda, Mexico. She later moved, to Mexico
, married, and became a Mexican
citizen.
In Mexico, she worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, (People's Graphic Arts Workshop), a group of printmakers organized in 1937 by Leopoldo Méndez, Raúl Anguiano
, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O'Higgins and dedicated to using their art to promote social change. There she and other artists created a series of linoleum cuts on black heroes. They "did posters, leaflets, collective booklets, illustrations for textbooks, posters and illustrations for the construction of schools, against illiteracy in Mexico."
She became the first female professor of sculpture and head of the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
, School of Fine Arts, San Carlos, in Mexico City
, in 1958, and taught there until retiring in 1975. She continues to be active in the art community of Cuernavaca, Morelos.
, and an Elizabeth Catlett Day in Cleveland, Ohio
. She is an honorary citizen of New Orleans and has received the keys to many cities. She received an honorary Doctorate from Pace University
, in New York
and was accompanied to the presentation by fellow sculptor and good friend Manuel Bennett.
In 2003, Catlett was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center.
in New York City commissioned her to create a bronze sculpture, and her bronze relief adorns the Chemical Engineering Building at Howard University. In 2003 Catlett designed a memorial to author Ralph Ellison
, which stands in West Harlem, NY.
The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Catlett in 1995 to create a print to benefit the educational and cultural programs put on by the Smithsonian Associates. The resulting lithograph, Children With Flowers, highlights the unity and diversity of children, and hangs in the ongoing exhibit Graphic Eloquence in the S. Dillon Ripley Center
in the National Mall
.
She has created numerous outdoor sculptures which are displayed in Mexico; in Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans, LA; and, Washington, D.C. She is represented in many collections through the world including the Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art
, NY; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico; National Museum of Prague; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; State University of Iowa; Howard University; Fisk University; Atlanta University; the Barnett-Aden Collection, Tampa, Fl.; Schomburg Collection, NY; Rothman Gallery, L.A.; Museum of New Orleans, High Museum, Atlanta; and the Metropolitan Museum, NY.
auctioned Elizabeth Catlett’s life-size red cedar sculpture Homage to My Young Black Sisters, 1968, for $288,000—more than any previous work by the artist at auction. The prior record for a Catlett sculpture was set at Swann in February 2008 for a painted terra cotta work.
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and printmaker. Catlett is best known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which are seen as politically charged.
Biography
Catlett was born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the youngest of three children. Both of her parents were teachers.
She attended the Lucretia Mott Elementary School, Dunbar High School
Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.)
Dunbar High School is a public secondary school located in Washington, D.C., United States. The school is located in the Truxton Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington, two blocks from the intersection of New Jersey and New York Avenues...
, and then Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. In an interview in December 1981 in Artist and Influence magazine, she stated that she changed her major to painting because of the influence of James A. Porter, and because there was no sculpture division at Howard at the time. She received her BS cum laude from Howard in 1935. She then worked as a high school teacher in North Carolina but left after two years, frustrated by the low teaching salaries for black people.
While living and working in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, she was briefly married to Charles White
Charles Wilbert White
Charles Wilbert White was an American artist born in Chicago. He was known for his WPA era murals. White was married to famed sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett briefly...
.
In 1947, she married Mexican artist Francisco Mora
Francisco Mora
Francisco Mora was born in 1922 in the central-western state of Michoacán His father was a weaver, musician, and Mexican artist. In 1941, Mora relocated to Mexico City where he began exhibiting with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a communal graphics workshop founded by artists Leopold Méndez, Pablo...
, and made Mexico her permanent home, later becoming a Mexican citizen. They have three sons, including film director Juan Mora. Her granddaughter, Naima Mora
Naima Mora
Naima Mora is an American fashion model and the winner of Cycle 4 of America's Next Top Model.-Early life:Naima Mora was born on March 1, 1984 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of African American, talented jazz vocalist and entrepreneur Theresa Mora & Mexican jazz percussionist Francisco Mora...
, was the Cycle 4 winner of the America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
television show. Catlett's sculpture, "Naima", is of Naima as a child.
Since retiring in 1975, she continues to be active in the Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
art community.
Education
In 1940 Catlett became the first student to receive an M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa School of Art and Art HistoryUniversity of Iowa School of Art and Art History
The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History is a school of the University of Iowa located in Iowa City, IA which awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Art history...
. While there, she was influenced by American landscape painter Grant Wood
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his...
, who urged students to work with the subjects they knew best. For Catlett, this meant black people, and especially black women, and it was at this point that her work began to focus on African Americans. Her piece Mother and Child, done in limestone in 1939 for her thesis, won first prize in sculpture at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago in 1940.
She studied ceramics
Ceramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
in 1941, lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
at the Art Students League of New York
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
in 1942-1943, and with sculptor Ossip Zadkine
Ossip Zadkine
Ossip Zadkine was a Belarusian-born artist who lived in France. He is primarily known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs.-Early years and career:...
in New York in 1943.
Career
Catlett became the 'promotion director' for the George Washington Carver School in HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
located at 57 W. 125th St. Roy DeCarava
Roy DeCarava
Roy Rudolph DeCarava was an American photographer. DeCarava and poet Langston Hughes collaborated on a notable 1955 book on life in Harlem, The Sweet Flypaper of Life...
was one of the students. Some of the teachers included Ernest Crichlow
Ernest Crichlow
Ernest Crichlow was an African American social realist artist known for his role in the Harlem Renaissance.-Early life and career:...
, Norman Lewis
Norman Lewis (artist)
Norman W. Lewis was an African-American painter, scholar, and teacher. He is associated with Abstract Expressionism. Lewis was African-American, of Caribbean descent.-Early life and career:...
, and Charles White
Charles Wilbert White
Charles Wilbert White was an American artist born in Chicago. He was known for his WPA era murals. White was married to famed sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett briefly...
, who was for a time her husband.
In 1946 Catlett received a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship that allowed her to travel to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
where she studied wood carving with Jose L. Ruiz and ceramic sculpture with Francisco Zúñiga
Francisco Zúñiga
thumbJosé Jesús Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría was a Costa Rican and Mexican artist, known both for his painting and his sculpture...
, at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, Esmeralda, Mexico. She later moved, to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, married, and became a Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
citizen.
In Mexico, she worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, (People's Graphic Arts Workshop), a group of printmakers organized in 1937 by Leopoldo Méndez, Raúl Anguiano
Raúl Anguiano
José Raúl Anguiano Valadez was a Mexican critical realist painter, draftsman, muralist, and engraver, as well as a member of the second generation of the so-called "Mexican School of Painting" in Mexican art, along with Juan O'Gorman, Judith Gutierrez, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado,...
, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O'Higgins and dedicated to using their art to promote social change. There she and other artists created a series of linoleum cuts on black heroes. They "did posters, leaflets, collective booklets, illustrations for textbooks, posters and illustrations for the construction of schools, against illiteracy in Mexico."
She became the first female professor of sculpture and head of the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...
, School of Fine Arts, San Carlos, in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, in 1958, and taught there until retiring in 1975. She continues to be active in the art community of Cuernavaca, Morelos.
Awards
She has received numerous awards including the Women's Caucus For Art. The Graphic Arts Workshop has won an international peace prize. An Elizabeth Catlett Week was proclaimed in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, and an Elizabeth Catlett Day in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. She is an honorary citizen of New Orleans and has received the keys to many cities. She received an honorary Doctorate from Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
, in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and was accompanied to the presentation by fellow sculptor and good friend Manuel Bennett.
In 2003, Catlett was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center.
Works
Some of her best-known prints are Sharecropper (1968 or 1970) and Malcolm X Speaks for Us (1969). Well-known sculptured pieces include Dancing Figure (1961), The Black Woman Speaks and Target (1970), and The Singing Head. The National Council of Negro WomenNational Council of Negro Women
The National Council of Negro Women is a non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families and communities. NCNW fulfills this mission through research, advocacy, national and community based services and...
in New York City commissioned her to create a bronze sculpture, and her bronze relief adorns the Chemical Engineering Building at Howard University. In 2003 Catlett designed a memorial to author Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
, which stands in West Harlem, NY.
The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Catlett in 1995 to create a print to benefit the educational and cultural programs put on by the Smithsonian Associates. The resulting lithograph, Children With Flowers, highlights the unity and diversity of children, and hangs in the ongoing exhibit Graphic Eloquence in the S. Dillon Ripley Center
S. Dillon Ripley Center
The S. Dillon Ripley Center, better known simply as the Ripley Center, is one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution series of museums located in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The above-ground portion is only a small pagoda, and it descends into a larger underground portion...
in the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
.
She has created numerous outdoor sculptures which are displayed in Mexico; in Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans, LA; and, Washington, D.C. She is represented in many collections through the world including the Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, NY; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico; National Museum of Prague; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; State University of Iowa; Howard University; Fisk University; Atlanta University; the Barnett-Aden Collection, Tampa, Fl.; Schomburg Collection, NY; Rothman Gallery, L.A.; Museum of New Orleans, High Museum, Atlanta; and the Metropolitan Museum, NY.
Auction Records
On October 8, 2009, Swann GalleriesSwann Galleries
Swann Galleries is a New York auction house founded in 1941. It is a specialist auctioneer of antique and rare works on paper, and it is considered the oldest continually operating New York specialist auction house....
auctioned Elizabeth Catlett’s life-size red cedar sculpture Homage to My Young Black Sisters, 1968, for $288,000—more than any previous work by the artist at auction. The prior record for a Catlett sculpture was set at Swann in February 2008 for a painted terra cotta work.
External links
- Listings for over 70 works produced by Elizabeth Catlett during her time at the Taller de Gráfica Popular can be viewed at Gráfica Mexciana.
- Elizabeth Catlett Online ArtCyclopedia guide to pictures of works by Elizabeth Catlett in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
- African American World . Arts & Culture . Art Focus |PBS Elizabeth Catlett page of the Social Activism section of the PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
article on African American Artists - June Kelly Gallery Elizabeth Catlett Includes a detailed timeline of Catlett's life
- Distinguished Alumni Awards The University of Iowa Presents Elizabeth Catlett Mora
- Elizabeth Catlett's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Form That Achieves Sympathy A Conversation with Elizabeth Catlett by Michael Brenson in Sculpture, a publication of the International Sculpture Center
- Brief Profile with nice picture
- Elizabeth Catlett's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Catlett's Children With Flowers, the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program