Elizabeth Catlett (April 15, 1915–April 2, 2012) was a sculptor, painter, and printmaker well known for producing politically charged black Expressionistic powerful sculptures and prints. Catlett was born in Washington, DC, and attended Dunbar High School. She received a scholarship to study at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, PA, but was rejected by the institution because of her race. In 1935, Catlett earned a BS and graduated cum laude from Howard University School of Art, in Washington, DC. She went on to graduate with an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1940, before moving on to study ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago, IL. In 1942, she studied lithography at the Art Students League in New York City, and then, in 1943, she joined Ossip Zadkine (French, 1890–1967) to study sculpting. In most of her works, the artist combined fundamental elements of African traditions with the traditions of African Americans and Mexico. Catlett was originally enrolled to study design, printmaking, and drawing, but later changed her major to painting, due to the influence of James A. Porter (American, 1905–1970), and because Howard University did not have a sculpting department at the time. She taught for two years in North Carolina, but quit due to low salaries paid to black teachers. She was the first student to graduate with an MFA at the University of Iowa, and was greatly influenced by Grant Wood (American, 1891–1942), who produced great paintings of the American landscape. She sculpted Mother and Child in 1939, and a year later it won her first prize at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago, IL. In 1947, she married Mexican artist Francisco Mora, and made Mexico her permanent home, later becoming a Mexican citizen. They have three sons, including Jazz musician Francisco Mora Catlett, film director Juan Mora Catlett and visual artist David Mora Catlett. Her granddaughter, Naima Mora, was the Cycle 4 winner of the Americas Next Top Model television show. Catletts sculpture, Naima, is of Naima as a child. Catlett received a number of awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award by the International Sculpture Center, in 2003. Some of her best-known prints are Sharecropper (1968 or 1970) and Malcolm X Speaks for Us (1969). Well-known sculptured pieces include Dancing Figure (1961), The Black Woman Speaks and Target (1970), and The Singing Head. The National Council of Negro Women in New York City commissioned her to create a bronze sculpture, and her bronze relief adorns the Chemical Engineering Building at Howard University. Catletts statue of Louis Armstrong was dedicated in Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, in 1976. In 2003 Catlett designed a memorial to author Ralph Ellison, which stands in West Harlem, NY. The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Catlett in 1995 to create a print to benefit the educational and cultural programs put on by the Smithsonian Associates. The resulting lithograph, Children With Flowers, highlights the unity and diversity of children, and hangs in the ongoing exhibit Graphic Eloquence in the S. Dillon Ripley Center on the National Mall in the District of Columbia. In 2010, Cattlet finishes her 10-foot sculpture of Mahalia Jackson, the great Gospel singer. It was inaugurated in New Orleans Treme neighborhood; which isnt far from her 1975 Louis Armstrong statue. Catlett created numerous outdoor sculptures, which are displayed in Mexico; in Jackson, Mississippi; and, Washington, D.C. She is represented in many collections through the world including the Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico; National Museum of Prague; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; State University of Iowa; Howard University; Fisk University; Atlanta University; the Barnett-Aden Collection, Tampa, Fl.; Schomburg Collection, NY; Rothman Gallery, L.A.; Museum of New Orleans, High Museum, Atlanta; and the Metropolitan Museum, NY. Catlett died on April 2, 2012, at the age of 96, in her home in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 02:22:41 +0000
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