Elizabeth Catlett
A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies
9780226836577
9780226836584
Elizabeth Catlett
A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies
A book highlighting the work of pioneering Black printmaker, sculptor, and activist Elizabeth Catlett.
Accomplished printmaker and sculptor, avowed feminist, and lifelong activist Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) built a remarkable career around intersecting passions for formal rigor and social justice. This book, accompanying a major traveling retrospective, offers a revelatory look at the artist and her nearly century-long life, highlighting overlooked works alongside iconic masterpieces.
Catlett’s activism and artistic expression were deeply connected, and she protested the injustices of her time throughout her life. Her work in printmaking and sculpture draws on organic abstraction, the modernism of the United States and Mexico, and African art to center the experiences of Black and Mexican women. Catlett attended Howard University, studied with the painter Grant Wood, joined the Harlem artistic community, and worked with a leftist graphics workshop in Mexico, where she lived in exile after the US accused her of communism and barred her re-entry into her home country.
The book’s essays address a range of topics, including Catlett’s early development as an artist-activist, the impact of political exile on her work, her pedagogical legacy, her achievement as a social realist printmaker, her work with the arts community of Chicago’s South Side, and the diverse influences that shaped her practice.
Accomplished printmaker and sculptor, avowed feminist, and lifelong activist Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) built a remarkable career around intersecting passions for formal rigor and social justice. This book, accompanying a major traveling retrospective, offers a revelatory look at the artist and her nearly century-long life, highlighting overlooked works alongside iconic masterpieces.
Catlett’s activism and artistic expression were deeply connected, and she protested the injustices of her time throughout her life. Her work in printmaking and sculpture draws on organic abstraction, the modernism of the United States and Mexico, and African art to center the experiences of Black and Mexican women. Catlett attended Howard University, studied with the painter Grant Wood, joined the Harlem artistic community, and worked with a leftist graphics workshop in Mexico, where she lived in exile after the US accused her of communism and barred her re-entry into her home country.
The book’s essays address a range of topics, including Catlett’s early development as an artist-activist, the impact of political exile on her work, her pedagogical legacy, her achievement as a social realist printmaker, her work with the arts community of Chicago’s South Side, and the diverse influences that shaped her practice.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Foreword
To That Degree and More / Dalila Scruggs
Plates: 1915–1947
Becoming an Artist-Activist at Howard University / Melanee C. Harvey
Social(ist) Networks in Chicago and New York / Sarah Kelly Oehler
Plates: 1947–1960
Sharecropper and Campesino / Julia Fernandez
An Artist-Activist at the Center of the Global Sixties / Dalila Scruggs
La Maestra’s Fugitive Pedagogy in Mexico / J.V. Decemvirale
Plates: 1960–1975
Pressing Narratives / Mary Lee Corlett
“Thinking about Women” through Form, Substance, and Radical Politics / Melanie Anne Herzog
Giving Feminism a Shove in the Right Direction / Catherine Morris
Plates: 1975–2012
Shaping Public Space / Dalila Scruggs
A Woman of Great Integrity, and Bravery / Lowery Stokes Sims
Chronology / Rashieda Witter
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
To That Degree and More / Dalila Scruggs
Plates: 1915–1947
Becoming an Artist-Activist at Howard University / Melanee C. Harvey
Social(ist) Networks in Chicago and New York / Sarah Kelly Oehler
Plates: 1947–1960
Sharecropper and Campesino / Julia Fernandez
An Artist-Activist at the Center of the Global Sixties / Dalila Scruggs
La Maestra’s Fugitive Pedagogy in Mexico / J.V. Decemvirale
Plates: 1960–1975
Pressing Narratives / Mary Lee Corlett
“Thinking about Women” through Form, Substance, and Radical Politics / Melanie Anne Herzog
Giving Feminism a Shove in the Right Direction / Catherine Morris
Plates: 1975–2012
Shaping Public Space / Dalila Scruggs
A Woman of Great Integrity, and Bravery / Lowery Stokes Sims
Chronology / Rashieda Witter
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
