Elizabeth Catlett
African American sculptor and printmakerKnown for her politically charged sculptures and prints
Early Years / Family Life
Elizabeth Catlett was born into a middle-class family, the youngest of three children and the granddaughter of slaves. Her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute.Education
1935 / Howard University, studied design, printmaking, drawing1940 / University of Iowa - first person to receive a Master’s degree in sculpture
1941 / Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1942 to 1943 / Art Student League, New York
Influences
The art theories of Alain Locke and James A. PorterThe social activism of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera
American landscape painter Grant Wood
African and Mexican cultures
Themes in Artwork
strugglefemininity
motherhood
Timeline
- 1915 / born on April 15th in Washington, D.C., USA
- mid-1930s / works as a muralist for two months with the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration
- 1935 / receives degree from Howard University School of Art in Washington, D.C.
- 1940 / thesis sculpture wins first prize at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago
- 1940 / receives MFA from the University of Iowa
- 1941 / studies ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
- 1942 to 1943 / studies lithography at the Art Student League in New York
- 1943 / studies with sculptor Ossip Zadkine in New York
- 1946 / receives a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship that allowed her to travel to Mexico City where she studied painting, sculpture, and lithography. Works with the People’s Graphic Arts Workshop (Taller de Gráfica Popular), a group of printmakers dedicated to using their art to promote social change
- 1947 / marries Mexican artist Francisco Mora
- 1947 to 1948 / studies wood carving with Jose L. Ruiz and ceramic sculpture with Francisco Zuniga
- 1950s / as a left-wing activist, is investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
- 1958 / becomes the first female professor of sculpture and head of the sculpture department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, School of Fine Arts
- 1962 / becomes Mecixan citizen
- 1975 / retires from teaching
- 1998 / Ellizabeth Catlett Sculpture: A Fifty-Year Retrospective, traveling exhibition
Examples of Work
Woman Fixing Her Hair / 1993 / mahogany and opals / 27 x 18 x 13 inches
Sharecropper / 1970 / full color linoleum block print / 17.7 x 16.6 inches
Black Girl / 2004 / Lithograph / 22 x 15 inches