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Elizabeth Catlett
Born in 1915 in Washington DC, USA / Lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico

Jens Hoffmann (JH): Elizabeth Catlett has always been concerned with humanity and social change. Her iconic Sharecropper (1952/1968) print is an early work that epitomizes her style of graphic portraiture, done with both empathy and political undercurrents. It shows a female farm worker whose weathered face tells of her hardships. Sharecropping is a farming practice whereby a landowner leases a piece of land to a tenant in return for a portion of the harvested crops. Effectively a new form of slavery, it proliferated in the southern United States after the Civil War, when many ex-slaves were penniless but possessed a vast working knowledge of the land. Catlett saw sharecroppers on visits to North Carolina. The sharecropper in this print possesses a sense of dignity and strength that belies her difficult situation. She appears triumphant, not downtrodden. 

Adriano Pedrosa (AP): Catlett wanted her work to be accessible for larger audiences, and because of that desire she decided to work exclusively figuratively. She liked the medium of printmaking for similar reasons, as prints are easy to disseminate. While her sculptures, such as Mother and Child (1939), are an important part of her oeuvre, she is best known for her prints. She moved to Mexico during the 1940s and became part of the legendary Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Arts Workshop).

JH: The organization was an activist print collective founded in 1937 by the artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O’Higgins, and Luis Arenal. Catlett talks about how valuable her time there was, in terms of creating the best work she could and receiving feedback from other artists. Linoleum cuts and woodcuts were the method of choice to create limited-edition prints, posters, banners, and fliers. Most of the work that came out of the Taller had a political sensibility. The artwork sought to inform people about critical issues such as labor unions and anti-militarism.

AP: Catlett once said, “True art always comes from cultural necessity.” In her prints, she explored pertinent social and political issues, from racism to labor to gun violence. Many of her prints deal with the history of Civil Rights and the continued fight for equality in America. As an African American woman who dealt with overt discrimination and wage inequalities, these problems were of great importance for Catlett. The desire for equality and her belief in the strength of black women in the face of adversity resonate through many of her prints, from Sharecropper to her most recent works. In Harriet (1975), Harriet Tubman is guiding people seeking freedom along the Underground Railroad. Her figure is powerful and heroic, dominating the composition with dynamic motion.

JH: Catlett has lived in Mexico for the past 70 years. In her work, we see an African American political sensibility that has been influenced by traditional Mexican iconography. Her practice is critically concerned with expressing an interest in wider issues of race and ethnicity. The woman as mother, fighter, and survivor is a central theme, and one that resonates universally across all cultures.