Elizabeth Catlett, Pioneering African American Scupltor, Dies at 96


Elizabeth Catlett, a leading sculptor, painter and printmaker whose depictions of the strength and dignity of African American women made her one of the 20th century’s most important artists, died Monday at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was 96.

Maria Antonieta Alvarez, Catlett’s daughter-in-law, announced the artist’s death but did not provide a cause.

Born on April 15, 1915, Catlett was raised by her mother, a teacher, because her father, who was also a teacher, had died little before she was born. She said she knew from age 6 that she wanted to be an artist.

After graduating from Howard University in 1935 with a bachelor’s degree in art, Elizabeth got her master’s at the University of Iowa where she was student of Grant Wood, painter of iconic “American Gothic.”

Wood told his young student to make art about what she knew best.

CNN writes “the grandchild of former slaves, Catlett often addressed themes related to civil rights and African-American culture in her art. Some of her most famous works depict African-American women, like the 1968 linocut “Sharecropper,” the 1968 sculpture “Homage to My Young Black Sisters,” as well as “Negro Mother and Child,” the wooden carving for which she won first prize at the 1940 American Negro Exposition.”

“I wanted to show the history and strength of all kinds of black women,” Catlett told the St. Petersburg Times in 1992. “Working women, country women, urban women, great women in the history of the United States.”

In 1946 Ms. Catlett traveled to Mexico on a fellowship. There she married the artist Francisco Mora and accepted an invitation to work at Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP), a workshop in Mexico City for murals and graphic arts.

The Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts said that throughout her career Catlett demonstrated “her interest in social justice and the rights of black and Mexican women.”

Catlett is survived by three sons, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, her family said. The family said her remains would be cremated in a private ceremony and would remain in Mexico.

Some of Elizabeth Catlett‘s work can be seen below:

Sharecropper

Homage to my young black sisters

via Times Union

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