Elizabeth Catlett -The Artist Who Fought with Her Heart
Born: April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Died: April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Elizabeth Catlett was a groundbreaking artist and activist who used her sculptures and prints to celebrate Black identity and fight for social justice.
Born on April 15, 1915, in Washington, D.C., she was the granddaughter of enslaved people and raised by a single mother who taught her to love art. As a teenager, Catlett dreamed of becoming a professional artist. She applied to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and was accepted. But when the school found out she was Black, they denied her admission. This early experience with racism shaped her future path.
Instead, Catlett attended Howard University, a historically Black college. There she studied design, drawing, and printmaking. She learned from famous teacher Alain Locke, who encouraged African American artists to tell their own stories. After graduating, Catlett moved to North Carolina to teach art at Hillside High School. She also began working on art projects through the Public Works of Art Project, a program that gave artists jobs during the Great Depression.
During this time, Catlett became inspired by Mexican artists like Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias, who used their art to show the struggles of everyday people. In 1939, she left her teaching job after fighting for equal pay and went to the University of Iowa for her master’s degree. There, she studied under famous painter Grant Wood. He gave her advice that changed her life: “Take as your subject what you know best.” Catlett began focusing on the lives of Black women, mothers, and children in her work. She also started to explore sculpture more seriously.
In 1940, she became the first woman to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa. Her thesis project, a sculpture called Negro Mother and Child, won first prize at the 1940 Chicago American Negro Exposition. Catlett later taught art at Dillard University in New Orleans while continuing her own studies in the summer at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the early 1940s, she moved to Harlem, New York, with her husband, artist Charles Wilbert White. In Harlem, she taught adult education and met important Black writers and leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Ralph Ellison. She was inspired by their work and began using her own art to speak out about racism and inequality.
In 1946, Catlett received a fellowship to study in Mexico. There, she joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP), a group of artists who used prints and posters to support social change. One of her first projects was helping make artwork to promote literacy in rural parts of Mexico. She created powerful images of workers, mothers, and Civil Rights heroes like Martin Luther King Jr.
Because of her activism and her support for workers' rights, Catlett was seen as a political threat. She was even arrested during a railroad strike in Mexico. Later, the U.S. government barred her from returning home. Even though she couldn’t live in the U.S. again, she continued to make art that told the stories of African American heroes, like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Phyllis Wheatley.
Over the years, Catlett’s artwork was shown in museums across the U.S., including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her talent and message were finally honored, cities like Cleveland and Berkeley celebrated ‘Elizabeth Catlett Day’ and ‘Elizabeth Catlett Week.’ She also received honorary degrees from several universities, including Carnegie Mellon, the same school that had once rejected her.
Elizabeth Catlett passed away in 2012 at the age of 96. She left behind a powerful legacy of art and activism. Through her hands, she gave strength and pride to generations of people fighting for justice.
References:
Elizabeth Catlett | National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/latinx/elizabeth-catlett/.
“Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist.” National Gallery of Art, 9 Mar. 1970, www.nga.gov/exhibitions/elizabeth-catlett-black-revolutionary-artist.
“Elizabeth Catlett: Artist Profile.” National Museum of Women in the Arts, 15 Sept. 2023, nmwa.org/art/artists/elizabeth-catlett/.
Key words:
Arts, Civil Rights, Courage, Perseverance, Selflessness, Repair the World – Tikkun Olam, Stand Up for Your Beliefs, Make a Difference
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Elizabeth Catlett artworks