In 1971, during her United States exile and the height of the Black Power Movement, Elizabeth Catlett once said, “Art for me must develop from a necessity within my people. It must answer a question, or wake somebody up, or give a shove in the right direction—our liberation.” Those words would come to define her artistic practice: the exploration of the civil injustices forced upon African American and Mexican people, along with the race, gender and class struggles that are prevalent even to this day. Spanning nearly a century long, Catlett’s life was one of intention and unwavering activism through art, leaving a legacy so impactful that it is now the focus of a new exhibition at one of the most prestigious museums in the country.
Held at the National Gallery of Art, Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies, is a retrospective that highlights Catlett’s innovation as a creative, and her advocacy for equality. With this being the most extensive showing of her art in the United States, it features more than 150 works, from her sculptures and prints, to the paintings and drawings that made her an icon in her field. The exhibition’s title came to fruition from a speech Catlett gave over five decades ago; underscoring its main themes; standing as a testament to Catlett’s commitment to social change. While originally opened at the Brooklyn Museum last fall, this NGA exhibition is particularly notable because it is housed in the same city that shaped the artist during her formative years.
Born in 1915 in Washington, D.C., Alice Elizabeth Catlett was the youngest of three children, with both her mother and father being descendants of formerly enslaved people. As a youth, Catlett would hear stories from her grandparents about plantation life and the turmoils associated with the Black experience. This information helped instill critical morals and values in the young girl, along with laying the foundation for her subsequent artistry. Pieces such as I Have Always Worked Hard In America… and …In The Fields—both of which are included in her heralded The Black Woman series—extended the reach of her grandparent’s teachings from within the walls of Catlett’s home to the minds of viewers worldwide.
The teenage Catlett found herself on the campus of Howard University in the fall of 1931 due what was then viewed as an unfortunate circumstance. She had been admitted into the Carnegie Institute of Technology but was refused admission when the school discovered she was black, leading her “The Mecca,” as it is affectionately labeled by its alumni and staff. Through her academic pursuits and extracurricular activities here, followed by stints in Iowa, New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and Mexico—where she would spend most of her life, Catlett established the foundation for her socially conscious art.
Although the exhibition showcases the entirety of the sculptor’s career, one of the larger messages is that of her art acknowledging not only the inequality for people of color, but her experience as a Black woman living in Mexico. Observers can see dynamic between Mexican and Black art, culture, and solidarity amongst these oppressed groups, giving her compositions a transnational appeal.
“Elizabeth Catlett was a Mexican citizen for most of her life,” said Dalila Scruggs, Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art at SAAM and the exhibition’s co-curator. “She is famously quoted for saying, ‘My art speaks for both my people, black people and Mexican people,’ and that’s really reflected in the ways that she’s able to draw connections by looking at people like sharecroppers in the United States, and how that same occupation, that same kind of labor appeared amongst rural workers in Mexico.”
1952’s Sharecropper—a linocut that was inspired by the spirit of activism that Catlett experienced while at the Taller de Gráfica Popular—truly encapsulates her years-long practice. The portraiture of a Black woman, along with the straw hat (an item synonymous with campesino iconography), brought together several concepts, and grew to become Catlett’s most renowned image in the eyes of many. “Those hats become a layman’s halo of sorts,” Scruggs explained. “They reflect the idea that these are working people who should be regarded for the way that they work, but it’s also a beatitude—the least of us should be the first of us.” Much of Catlett’s art focused on the duality of her two experiences, but nothing embodied such quite like the beautiful sculpture titled Naima: My Granddaughter, which was first completed in 1998.
The aforementioned piece is a marble bust of Catlett’s granddaughter Naima Mora, who is an actor, author, and accomplished model. What’s special about this cast is that Mora’s being alone is what inspired its creation. “[My grandmother] said that she witnessed a sensibility of strength within me as her granddaughter that she really wanted to capture,” Mora stated. “The other side of that was that she really liked my features and it represented not only those of blackness, but also those of indigenous Mexican heritage.”
Mora—along with her twin sister—as a youthful, Afro-Latina personified all that Catlett found alluring in this world; a kind of cross-culturalism that she defined as being a black American and then becoming a Mexican citizen. In Mexico, she was accepted in ways that she wasn’t in the United States during the early portion of her career. Her grandchildren served as a sense of hope for the future, and the endless possibilities of the present.
“Today, stepping into the galleries and seeing the sculpture there, I’m able to question and also recognize what my grandmother saw in me that I now find in myself,” Mora said. “So these very beautiful qualities that she really admired and reflected parts of her life and her personal decisions to seek liberation from what the United States was inflicting upon her as a revolutionary artist; I exist as the literal manifestation of her life choices.”
Throughout her endeavors with the TGP, conducting various lectures globally, and creating new works, Catlett remained steadfast in advocating for Black American and Mexican communities. However, her legacy isn’t restricted to only people of color, but she stands as an influence to all who seek justice and impartiality for the masses.
“One of the things that still is so remarkable to me about Catlett is her consistency, her commitment to a social politics focused on African Americans and women, to a very early and clear commitment to gender equality, And she maintained firmly and clearly her belief in those things over her very long life,” said Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
“She very clearly saw herself as part of history,” Morris continued. “She built her practice on looking towards the past, but understood herself to always be in conversation with the future. Homage to My Young Black Sisters is a perfect example of that. Made during a time when she couldn’t get to the United States, she is still devoting an enormous amount of creative energy to making a work that is in support of a younger generation of women that she sees. And she wants them to know that she sees them as part of a generational conversation that they are all included in.”
Now, over a decade after her death, Catlett’s memory forever lives on through her craft, and everyone that she’s inspired.
Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies is now on view at the National Gallery of Art until July 6, 2025.
