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Elizabeth Catlett Art

American, 1915-2012

Promoting social change was Elizabeth Catlett’s prime motivation as an artist. The granddaughter of enslaved people, Catlett was born in Washington, D.C., in 1915 and spent her adult life driven to create sculptures, prints and paintings that would reach, celebrate and uplift those who were barely visible in art.

“I have always wanted my art to service Black people — to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential,” Catlett said of her work in the 1978 book Art: African American. She studied art history, drawing and other disciplines at Howard University, and as an MFA student at the University of Iowa, her mentor, the painter Grant Wood, advised her to “take as her subject what she knew best.” As she later told an interviewer, “The thing that I knew the most about was Black women, because I am one, and I lived with them all my life, so that’s what I started working with.”

The centerpiece of Catlett’s spring 1940 thesis project, Negro Mother and Child — a figure of a Black mother embracing her child, carved from Indiana limestone — was awarded first place for sculpture at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago held that year.

Catlett taught art at Dillard University in New Orleans — where she battled discrimination daily — and met her first husband, artist Charles White, while living in Chicago. She resigned from Dillard in 1942 and moved to New York City. There Catlett befriended painter Jacob Lawrence and studied lithography and other media at the Art Students League. Inspired by her studies with Ossip Zadkine, she began to incorporate abstract forms into her wood and stone sculptures.

In 1946, a grant supported her travel to Mexico to study its murals and graphic art. As Catlett had experienced the barbaric and deeply destructive system of racial segregation that the Jim Crow laws enforced in the United States, Mexico felt like a welcome escape. She would make the country her home and create much of her work there, divorcing White and marrying painter and printmaker Francisco Mora of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP, in 1947. She collaborated with TGP, a graphic arts workshop dedicated to social issues located in Mexico City, on a number of works, including one of her best-known linoleum cut prints, Sharecropper (1952). The heroic depiction of an anonymous farm worker was intended to draw attention to the plight of Black tenant farmers who were ruthlessly exploited by the era’s white landowners.

Another iconic work of Catlett’s is Black Unity (1968), a raised fist sculpted from cedar, smooth and gleaming, with one side taking the form of two faces that resemble carved African masks. In the same year, the raised fist, a powerful symbol of the Civil Rights struggle and emblem of the Black Power movement, had been immortalized by two Black American athletes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who raised their black-gloved fists during the playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Catlett was a professor of sculpture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s School of Fine Arts in Mexico City from 1958 until 1976, when she retired to focus on making art, exhibiting extensively in the years that followed. In 2003, she completed the Ralph Ellison Memorial in New York’s Riverside Park. That same year she received a lifetime achievement award from the International Sculpture Center. Her work is in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Find a range of authentic Elizabeth Catlett art today on 1stDibs.

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CHILDREN WITH FLOWERS Signed Lithograph, Multicultural Portrait, Fabric Collage
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
Elizabeth Catlett - CHILDREN WITH FLOWERS 1995, limited edition lithograph printed in twelve colors using traditional hand lithography techniques on archival Arches paper, 100% acid free. CHILDREN WITH FLOWERS is a multicultural collage portrait of four children, each a different cultural heritage, wearing colorful print fabric clothing, gathered together behind a straw basket weave planter filled with a variety of pink impatiens and white daisies. The children's bodies, hands and flowers join together as a metaphor of unity and diversity of children throughout the world. A cheerful, socially aware composition by the renowned African American female...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

THE DOOR OF JUSTICE Signed Color Lithograph, Lawyer and Clients, Civil Rights
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
THE DOOR OF JUSTICE is an original, hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. THE DOOR OF JUSTICE was printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches printmaking paper, 100% acid free, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark on lower corner, print documentation provided. THE DOOR OF JUSTICE was created as a tribute to civil rights lawyers and the people they counsel depicted as a figurative portrait drawing of two lawyer figures, male and female opening "The Door of Justice" to a gathering of everyday people awaiting outside the doorway. Printed in primary color shades of yellow, blue, red, green, brown, gray and black. Print size - 24.25 x 27.5 inches, unframed, mint condition, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Image size - 18 x 22.5 inches Year published - 2000 Edition size - 100 "The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis." -Thurgood...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

WALKING BLINDLY Signed Lithograph, Black Woman, For My People by Margaret Walker
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
WALKING BLINDLY is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. WALKING BLINDLY portrays a young Black woman dressed in a magenta pink cardigan, white blouse, and blue green tweed texture skirt dancing by herself, centered amid a gray watercolor wash background surrounded by simple line drawn figures of an older woman shouting/singing praise, a forlorn young boy seated with his head down, and an older man standing, looking downward, holding a flask in his hand. This moving composition by Elizabeth Catlett is from the FOR MY PEOPLE suite of prints, a set of 6 lithographs...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

NEGRO ES BELLO II Signed Lithograph, Black Is Beautiful, Black Power Movement
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
NEGRO ES BELLO II is an original limited edition lithograph created by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett using hand printmaking techniques on archival printmaking paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed, titled, dated by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. NEGRO ES BELLO II is a powerful graphic statement; a visual representation and social commentary on the Black Power movement's resilience, determination, strength, and beauty. The orange color circular badges with panther emblems on the lithograph are symbols (Black Panther Logo) from the Black Panther movement - one of their mottos being "Black Is Beautiful". Print size - 33.5 x 25.25 inches, unframed, mint condition, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Image size - 27 1/2 × 21 inches Dated - 69'-01' , printed in 2001 at JK Fine Art Editions Co. Edition - 100 Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), a sculptor and printmaker, is widely considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century. Throughout her career Catlett used art in support of issues that mattered to her – feminism and maternalism, ethnicity, social justice, freedom against racism, class and gender inequality. An American and Mexican citizen, Catlett is best known for her depictions of African American women, the African American experience, and Mexican people...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

YOUNG DOUGLASS Signed Linocut, Black Portrait Head African American Civil Rights
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
YOUNG DOUGLASS is a hand pulled, original limited edition relief print created using linoleum cut printmaking techniques on white archival Somerset White paper, 100% acid free. Penci...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE Signed Linocut, Thurgood Marshall Portrait, Civil Rights
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE is a hand pulled original limited edition relief print created using linocut printmaking techniques on white archival heavyweight paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed by Ms. Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE was created as a tribute to Thurgood Marshall...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

VENDEDORA Signed Lithograph, Portrait Seated Young Girl, Mexican Fruit Seller
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
VENDEDORA, a limited edition lithograph by the renowned American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett(b.1915–2012) depicts a sensitive black and white portrait of a...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

CANDACE 1992 Tribute To African American Women, Black Woman Face Portrait
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
ELIZABETH CATLETT Candace - 10th Anniversary Celebration 1992, A Tribute to African American Women National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Commemorative Fine Art Poster Year printed - 1992 Print size - 31.5 x 18 inches Unsigned, unframed, mint condition CANDACE is a specially commissioned, lithographic art poster designed by Elizabeth Catlett produced in 1992 for The National Coalition of 100 Black Women to commemorate their 10th Anniversary. Printed using lithographic methods in black ink on heavyweight archival Coventry Rag white printmaking paper, 100% acid free. CANDACE portrays a powerful graphic portrait head of a black woman...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

Homage to the Panthers
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Catlett Homage to the Panthers, 1993 Color Lithograph on wove paper with deckled edges Signed, titled and dated in graphite pencil on the front Frame Included: elegantly floated and framed in dark wood museum quality frame under UV plexiglass This work, which truly needs no explanation, was exhibited by Gallery 511 in collaboration with Hirschl & Adler in New York City in an exhibition entitled "The Masters" (October 18...
Category

1990s Realist Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

Blues
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Catlett Blues, 1983 Color lithograph on cream wove paper Signed, titled, dated and numbered in graphite pencil on the front Printed and published by the Brandywine Workshop...
Category

1980s Modern Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph, Pencil

SINGING THEIR SONGS Signed Lithograph, Graphic Portraits, Black Culture
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
SINGING THEIR SONGS is a hand drawn limited edition lithograph printed using traditional hand lithography methods on archival Arches paper, 100% acid free created by the highly accla...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN(Turban), Hand Drawn Lithograph, Black Female Portrait
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the renowned African American woman artist Elizabeth Catl...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

NEW GENERATION Signed Lithograph, Black Father Holding Son, Family Portrait
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
NEW GENERATION is a hand drawn, limited edition lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches paper, 10% acid free, by the renowned African American woman artist...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

Freedom or Slavery, from the Paul Robeson Portfolio
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Catlett Freedom or Slavery, (from the Paul Robeson portfolio), 1988 Color lithograph on wove paper Pencil signed, dated and numbered by the artist on the front from the lim...
Category

1990s Realist Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

Rebozos
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in New York, NY
Lithograph on cream wove paper. From the first edition (of 2). Signed, titled, dated and numbered 38/50 in pencil by Catlett. Printed and published by the artist at the Taller de Grá...
Category

1960s Modern Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE Signed Linocut Portrait, Thurgood Marshall, Civil Rights
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE is a hand pulled original limited edition relief print created using linocut printmaking techniques on white archival heavyweight paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed by Ms. Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE was created as a tribute to Thurgood Marshall, civil rights lawyer and first African-American appointed to the US Supreme Court. As a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall championed civil rights and was the lead lawyer in the pivotal Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka (1954). This impactful graphic statement by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett, portrays a powerful black and white portrait of Thurgood Marshall with two seated figures, a male and female, engaged in legal counsel in the foreground. Print size - 29.5 x 21.5 in., image size - 22.5 x 18 in., unframed, excellent condition, strong impression, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Edition size - 100 Year published - 2001 Printer - JK Fine Art Editions Co., NJ Published by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Thurgood Marshall Institute "The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis." -Thurgood Marshall Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

THE DOOR OF JUSTICE Signed Lithograph, Black Lawyers Civil Rights Social Justice
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
THE DOOR OF JUSTICE is an original, hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. THE DOOR OF JUSTICE was printed using hand lithography techniques on white archival printmaking paper, 100% acid free, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark on lower corner, print documentation provided. THE DOOR OF JUSTICE was created as a tribute to civil rights lawyers and the people they counsel depicted as a black and white figurative portrait drawing of two black lawyers, male and female opening "The Door of Justice" to a gathering of everyday people awaiting outside the doorway. Print size - 24.25 x 27.5 in., unframed, excellent condition, pencil signed, titled, dated by Elizabeth Catlett Edition size - 100 Year published - 2000 "The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis." -Thurgood Marshall About the artist - Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

THERE IS A WOMAN IN EVERY COLOR Signed Relief Print, Black Woman Rainbow Figures
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
THERE IS A WOMAN IN EVERY COLOR is a hand pulled limited edition relief print created using linocut, woodcut, and silkscreen printmaking techniques on white archival printmaking pape...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

KEISHA M. Hand Drawn Lithograph, Young Black Female Portrait, Afro Hairstyle
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
KEISHA M. is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the renowned African-American woman sculptor, printmaker and painter Elizabeth Catlett (191...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

'Survivor' — Elizabeth Catlett
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Elizabeth Catlett, 'Survivor', linocut, 1983, edition 1000. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered '914/1000' in pencil. A fine impression, on...
Category

1980s American Modern Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

BREAD (Derecho Alimentarse) Signed Linocut, Mexican Girl with Braided Hair
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
BREAD (Derecho Alimentarse) The Right To Eat, created by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett. BREAD is a realistic linoleum cut portrait depicting a young Mexican girl...
Category

1960s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

HOMAGE TO THE PANTHERS Signed Lithograph Portrait Black Power Movement, Activism
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
HOMAGE TO THE PANTHERS is an original limited edition lithograph created using hand printmaking techniques on white archival fine art paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed, titled, dated by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. HOMAGE TO THE PANTHERS is an impactful graphic statement by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett, created as a tribute to the famous late 1960's Black Power organization, The Black Panthers. Composition of geometric orange rust shapes, powerfully graphic dense black portrait heads, clenched fists and guns. The Black Panther Party...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

GLORY Signed Linocut, Poetic Female Portrait, Black Woman, White Line Drawing
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
GLORY is a hand pulled, original limited edition relief print by the American and Mexican woman artist, printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett. GLORY was created using linocut printmaking techniques on cream colored archival Pescia paper, made in Italy, 100% acid free. GLORY is a poetic female portrait expressed as a white line drawing depicting a upright postured black woman standing in profile view, her arm resting on a chair back, framed by plants and foliage in the background. Printed from Catlett's masterly carved linoleum block; a very strong impression printed by hand in a taupe brown ink on warm buff color printmaking paper. GLORY is unframed, in mint condition, pencil signed, titled, dated on the lower margin by Elizabeth Catlett, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation will be provided. Print size - 23.5" x 15" unframed, excellent condition, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Edition size - 60 Year printed - 2008 Printer - JK Fine Art Editions Co. Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

ALL THE PEOPLE Signed Lithograph, For My People-Margaret Walker, Rainbow Faces
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
ALL THE PEOPLE is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. ALL THE PEOPLE is graphic composition comprised of a brilliant multi color rainbow across the bottom of the image with a centered, rose beige textured circle filled with simple black line drawings of men, women, and children's faces, a blue sky like area on top consists of textural effects obtained from Japanese rice paper. This impressive composition by the master print maker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett is from the FOR MY PEOPLE suite of prints, a set of 6 lithographs illustrating the well known 1942 poem by Margaret Walker. "For my people standing staring trying to fashion a better way from confusion, from hypocrisy and misunderstanding, trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people, all the faces, all the adams and eves and their countless generations;" - Stanza from the poem FOR MY PEOPLE by Margaret Walker Print size 23” x 19”, Edition size 99, unframed color lithograph on archival Arches paper, 100% acid free, Edition printed using traditional hand lithography methods by J.K. Fine Art Editions Co, NJ. Published in 1992 by the Limited Editions Club, NY. About the artist - Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University (B.S., 1935), where she studied design, printmaking, and drawing and was influenced by the art theories of Alain Locke and James A...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

VENDEDORA DE PERIÓDICOS Signed Lithograph, Mexican Woman Newspaper Vendor
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
VENDEDORA DE PERIÓDICOS is a limited edition lithograph by the acclaimed African American woman artist, sculptor and printmaker, Elizabeth Catlett (April 15, 1915 - April 2, 2012) printed in black ink on archival Plike cream colored Italian made paper using traditional lithography techniques in collaboration with Elizabeth Catlett. Hand signed in pencil P/P (Printers Proof) aside from the edition of 60, unframed, mint condition, from the master printers private collection. Edition size - 60 Paper size - 24.25" x 18.5", Image size - 18.25" x 13" Year printed - 2010 Elizabeth Catlett dedicated her art to images reflecting the history and culture of African-American and Mexican peoples...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

TO MARRY Signed Lithograph, For My People by Margaret Walker, Bride and Groom
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
TO MARRY is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. TO MARRY features a creative collage style portrait of a bride...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

SECOND GENERATION Signed Lithograph, For My People by Margaret Walker, Protest
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
SECOND GENERATION is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the highly acclaimed African-American woman artist Elizabeth Catlett, master printmaker and sculptor best known for her depictions of the African-American experience. SECOND GENERATION portrays a double portrait of a boy and girl in profile, bordered by bright yellow, orange and red flames with a row of turquoise blue silhouette figures marching in protest across the lower portion of this striking composition by Elizabeth Catlett. From the FOR MY PEOPLE suite of prints, a set of 6 lithographs illustrating the well known 1942 poem by Margaret Walker. "Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now rise and take control." stanza from the poem FOR MY PEOPLE by Margaret Walker...
Category

1990s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

MAN Signed Woodcut, Face Portrait, Paper-Doll Cutout People, Mexican Culture
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
MAN is a hand pulled, original limited edition relief print created using woodcut and serigraphy(silkscreen) printmaking techniques on white archival heavyweight paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed, titled and dated in pencil on lower margin by Elizabeth Catlett, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. MAN is an impactful portrait head woodcut depicting an indigenous Mexican male face carved by the renowned American and Mexican woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett. Strong impression printed in rich black ink on white paper with a row of paper doll like cutout people silkscreened printed in gradient shades of yellow, orange, and brown beneath the Man's head, reminiscent of Mexican folk art paper-cutting, Artist: Catlett, Elizabeth (1915-2012) Title: Man Date: 1975, printed 2003 Medium: woodcut and color silkscreen Dimensions: 26 x 17.75 inches (paper size) Edition: 250 published by the Print Club of Cleveland, number 83, 2005 About the artist - Elizabeth Catlett graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1935, where she studied under a number of notable artists, including Lois Maillou Jones...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Woodcut

MALCOLM X SPEAKS FOR US Signed Linocut Portrait Head Black Civil Rights Activist
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
MALCOLM X SPEAKS FOR US is a hand pulled, original limited edition relief print created using linocut printmaking techniques on white archival heavyweight Somerset paper 500 gsm., 100% acid free. Pencil signed, titled, dated by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. Printed at JK Fine Art Editions Co. MALCOLM X SPEAKS FOR US is an impactful graphic statement by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett, created as a tribute to the slain militant black activist...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut

DANCING II, Signed Lithograph, Men Women Dance Portrait, Black Culture
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Union City, NJ
DANCING II is an original limited edition lithograph printed in black ink on white archival printmaking paper, 100% acid free, using hand lithography tec...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Lithograph

Man
By Elizabeth Catlett
Located in Missouri, MO
Elizabeth Catlett “Man” 1975 (The Print Club of Cleveland Publication Number 83, 2005) Woodcut and Color Linocut Printed in 2003 at JK Fine Art Editions Co., Union City, New Jersey Signed and Dated By The Artist Lower Right Titled Lower Left Ed. of 250 Image Size: approx 18 x 12 inches Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) is regarded as one of the most important women artists and African American artists of our time. She believed art could affect social change and that she should be an agent for that change: “I have always wanted my art to service black people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential.” As an artist and an activist, Catlett highlighted the dignity and courage of motherhood, poverty, and the working class, returning again and again to the subject she understood best—African American women. The work below, entitled, “Man”, is "carved from a block of wood, chiseled like a relief. Catlett, a sculptor as well as a printmaker, carves figures out of wood, and so is extremely familiar with this material. For ‘Man’ she exploits the grain of the wood, allowing to to describe the texture of the skin and form vertical striations, almost scarring the image. Below this intense, three-dimensional visage parades seven boys, printed repetitively from a single linoleum block in a “rainbow roll” that changes from gold to brown. This row of brightly colored figures with bare feet, flat like a string of paper dolls, raise their arms toward the powerful depiction of the troubled man above.” Biography: Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) Known for abstract sculpture in bronze and marble as well as prints and paintings, particularly depicting the female figure, Elizabeth Catlett is unique for distilling African American, Native American, and Mexican art in her work. She is "considered by many to be the greatest American black sculptor". . .(Rubinstein 320) Catlett was born in Washington D.C. and later became a Mexican citizen, residing in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico. She spent the last 35 years of her life in Mexico. Her father, a math teacher at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, died before she was born, but the family, including her working mother, lived in the relatively commodious home of his family in DC. Catlett received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University, where there was much discussion about whether or not black artists should depict their own heritage or embrace European modernism. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1940 from the University of Iowa, where she had gone to study with Grant Wood, Regionalist* painter. His teaching dictum was "paint what you know best," and this advice set her on the path of dealing with her own background. She credits Wood with excellent teaching and deep concern for his students, but she had a problem during that time of taking classes from him because black students were not allowed housing in the University's dormitories. Following graduation in 1940, she became Chair of the Art Department at Dillard University in New Orleans. There she successfully lobbied for life classes with nude models, and gained museum admission to black students at a local museum that to that point, had banned their entrance. That same year, her painting Mother and Child, depicting African-American figures won her much recognition. From 1944 to 1946, she taught at the George Washington Carver School, an alternative community school in Harlem that provided instruction for working men and women of the city. From her experiences with these people, she did a series of paintings, prints, and sculptures with the theme "I Am a Negro Woman." In 1946, she received a Rosenwald Fellowship*, and she and her artist husband, Charles White, traveled to Mexico where she became interested in the Mexican working classes. In 1947, she settled permanently in Mexico where she, divorced from White, married artist Francisco Mora...
Category

Late 19th Century American Modern Elizabeth Catlett Art

Materials

Linocut, Woodcut

Elizabeth Catlett art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Elizabeth Catlett art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Elizabeth Catlett in lithograph, linocut, woodcut print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Elizabeth Catlett art, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Donald Baechler, Douglas Hofmann, and Kiki Smith. Elizabeth Catlett art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $495 and tops out at $20,000, while the average work can sell for $5,300.

Artists Similar to Elizabeth Catlett

Questions About Elizabeth Catlett Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertFebruary 13, 2024
    How Elizabeth Catlett made her prints over the course of her career varies. She is most famous for her linoleum cut prints, which she learned to produce while studying at the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City, Mexico. It was this method that Catlett employed when creating 1952's Sharecropper, one of Catlett's most enduring images. She also created woodcut prints, screenprints and lithographic prints. On 1stDibs, explore a range of Elizabeth Catlett art.

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