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Elizabeth Catlett , (Apr 15, 1915–Apr 2, 2012)
Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

I am the Black Woman.

1947, printed 1989
5 1/8 x 3 7/8 in. (13 x 10 cm)

Medium and Support: Linoleum cut on wove paper

Credit Line: Gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010)

Accession Number: 2016.10.1

Commentary

Celebrated as one of the pioneering American artists of the first half of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Catlett enlisted a broad range of expressive mediums, most notably sculpture and printmaking, to celebrate the lives of the “everyday people, the heroines and heroes of African American and Latin American liberation movements.” Growing up in Washington, D.C., after studying art at Howard University, Catlett continued her studies at the University of Iowa, where she was the first to receive a master of fine arts degree in sculpture. In addition to teaching jobs in the segregated South, both in Durham, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana, she also spent a summer immersed in the environment of the South Side Community Arts Center, the epicenter of Chicago’s thriving community of black writers and visual artists, before moving to Mexico in 1946. Her participation in the Taller de Gráfica Popular, where she created her first and perhaps most seminal series, I am the Black Woman, decidedly galvanized her already politically minded artistic practice.

Kelley Tialiou
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Assistant | Librarian | Archivist

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

One Thing Leads to Another…Selections from the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/30/2016 - 3/20/2016
Harlem: In Situ Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/29/2019 - 7/31/2019

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