Elizabeth Catlett (1915 - 2012)

Elizabeth Catlett was born on April 15, 1915, in Washington D.C. Her family's story of building community after enslavement carried a strong influence in her life, shaping the ethos of her artistic practice. Catlett's historic body of work engages with race, class, and gender, spanning a variety of mediums. Her sculptures, paintings, and prints offer meditations on both the struggles and the joys within Black life. Responding to segregation and the fight for civil rights, her depictions of sharecroppers and activists were stylistically influenced by Primitivism and Cubism. Catlett attended Howard University and graduated in 1935. Her perspective on an artist's political responsibility was influenced by the professors she encountered there, including celebrated African American figures such as Lois Mailou Jones and Alain Locke. After graduating from Howard, Catlett went on to receive an M.F.A in Sculpture from the University of Iowa.

Dividing her time between New York and Cuernavaca, Mexico, Catlett continued to produce a high volume of work. Over the course of her career, Catlett held over fifty solo exhibitions throughout the United States; in museums such as the Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York. The latter held a fifty-year retrospective of her sculptures, Elizabeth Catlett Sculpture: A 50-Year Retrospective, in 1998. Her archetypal figures, abstracted in wood, stone, clay or bronze into postures of defiance, endurance and, in the case of many mother-and-child images, fiercely protective tenderness, exude a spirit of indomitable hope and will. Catlett's sculptures and prints are in the permanent collections of major institutions and museums, including the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

On April 4, 2012, Elizabeth Catlett passed away at the age of 96. Her legacy still lives through her children, specifically, her son David Mora Catlett, an artist who often worked in collaboration with his mother.

Elizabeth Catlett's sculpture, The Family depicts a father, mother, and child standing and embracing. In bronze with brown patina, the lines of The Family follow the soft curve of her fine carving techniques, making the figure feel at once monumental and timeless. From the portrayal of this heartwarming American family, the artist would continue to find imagery to fuel a revolution, reminding us of the role that art can play in the fight for social justice. As Catlett once proclaimed, “We have to create an art for liberation and for life."

Exhibition History

Masters of Sculpture, 12 May – 31 August 2022, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Figuratively Speaking, 2 March – 6 May 2023, Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY

Literature

Bill Hodges Gallery, Masters of Sculpture, African Americans, et. al., New York, NY, 2022, illus. p. 23

The Family, 2002

Cast Bronze with Brown Patina on Wooden Base

15 ⅛ x 5 1/4 x 5 ½ in. (38.4 x 13.3 x 14 cm)

Base: 2 x 6 ⅛ x 6 ⅛ in. (5.1 x 15.6 x 15.6 cm), Total: 17 ⅛ x 6 ⅛ x 6 ⅛ in. (43.5 x 15.6 15.6 cm)

Initialed: E.C

Provenance

Lewis and Louise Hirchfeld Cullman Collection, New York, NY

Private Collection

Northside Child Development, New York, NY

Private Collection, CA

Bill Hodges Gallery, New York, NY