Elizabeth Catlett, Mexican and American, 1915 - 2012 Search this
Medium:
ink and graphite on paper
Dimensions:
H x W (image with title): 9 3/4 × 6 1/16 in. (24.8 × 15.4 cm)
H x W (image ): 8 15/16 × 6 1/16 in. (22.7 × 15.4 cm)
H x W (sheet): 15 1/8 × 11 1/4 in. (38.4 × 28.6 cm)
Type:
linocuts
Place made:
Mexico City, Mexico, Latin America, North and Central America
Date:
1946-1947; 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:
This black and white linocut depicts a woman hoeing a field. Wearing a dress with its sleeves rolled up, she holds a hoe in both hands. She is barefoot and wears a brimmed hat. She stands in a field between rows of crops with a farmhouse in the background. There is a handwritten title below the image in pencil. It is signed by the artist on the bottom right. The back is blank.