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Catalog Data

Created by:
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.
Topic:
African American  Search this
Agriculture  Search this
Art  Search this
Identity  Search this
Labor  Search this
Resistance  Search this
Rural life  Search this
Women  Search this
Credit Line:
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Winifred Hervey
Object number:
2017.21.3
Restrictions & Rights:
© 2020 Catlett Mora Family Trust/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
See more items in:
National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
Portfolio/Series:
The Black Woman (formerly the Negro Woman)
Classification:
Visual Arts
Data Source:
National Museum of African American History and Culture
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5048fea9a-4257-4729-84a5-5f9392b7805d
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmaahc_2017.21.3