Elizabeth Catlett, Mexican and American, 1915 - 2012 Search this
Medium:
ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions:
H x W (image with title): 9 3/16 × 5 7/8 in. (23.3 × 14.9 cm)
H x W (image): 8 3/8 × 5 7/8 in. (21.3 × 15 cm)
H x W (sheet): 15 1/8 × 11 5/16 in. (38.4 × 28.7 cm)
Type:
linocuts
Date:
1946; printed 1989
Caption:
I wanted to show the history and strength of all kinds of Black women. Working women, country women, great women in the history of the United States. — Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett was a versatile sculptor and printmaker committed to making art that promoted women, family, community, and equality. In 1946, she received a Julius Rosenwald Foundation Grant to travel and study in Mexico City. There, she worked with the Taller de Gráphica Popular (People’s Graphic Arts Workshop), a printmaking collective primarily dedicated to the production of sociopolitical art. During her stay, she completed The Negro Woman. This narrative series of prints embodies a first-person perspective of Black women, imparting a sense of intimacy and resilience as the viewer navigates a variety of images relating to resilience, heroism, and the ongoing struggle for racial justice.
Description:
Black and white linocut of a hanged man. The center of the image shows a lynched man with a noose around his neck and open eyes. His is depicted lying with his limbs bent and one arm above his head. Three figures stand near the dead man, two pairs of feet standing on parts of the noose. The title is handwritten in graphite below the image and the work is signed. The reverse is blank.
