Elizabeth Catlett  1915 –  2012

Durante una carrera que duró más de setenta años, esta escultora, pintora y grabadora creó unas obras que representan el genio, la lucha y el espiritu indomable de los negros. Nieta de esclavos liberados, Catlett nació en Washington y estudió en Dunbar High School y en la Universidad de Howard donde estudió diseño, grabado y dibujo. Recibió un premio de graduación en la Universidad de Iowa por su graduación en escultura

Despues de diplomarse pasó unos años dando clases en Nueva Orleans y en Harlem. En Nueva York se casó con el artista Charles White. Cuando estaba enseñando en Harlem recibió una beca para estudiar en New Mexico. Se divorció de White e hizo de México su nuevo hogar. Se unió el internacionalmente conocido Taller de Gráfica Popular, taller fundado en 1937 por un grupo de grabadores que se dedicaban a utilizar su arte para promover un cambio social. En este taller conoció al artista mejicano Francisco Mora con quien se casó en 1947. Se mantuvieron como miembros del Taller hasta 1966.

 

Durante sus dos primeros años en Méjico, Catlett consiguió fama internacional con su serie  "Mujer negra". Quince grabados que rinden homenaje a las mujeres negras y su luchas para resistir las duras realidades del racismo, la segregación y la pobreza.  Tambien creó imagenes y retratos de revolucionarios de latino america y de gente común

Bajo el rostro de abuela que vemos en las fotos tomadas en sus últimos años latía el corazón de una mujer guerrera. Fue una feminista antes de que ese término se conociese, una incansable defensora de los derechos humanos y de causas progresistas. Era miembro del partido comunista y su implicación con la politica de izquierdas y las luchas laborales en Méjico durante el apogeo de la era McCarthy la convirtió en objetivo de vigilancia por los Estados Unidos, etiquetada como "communista front organization" a cuyos miembros se le prohibía la entrada en Norteamerica. 

 

Por ser  miembro de Taller de Gráfica Popular fue declarada  "extranjera indeseable" por el Departamento de Estado de los EE.UU. y se le prohibio la entrada durante diez años.  Estas tácticas de intimidación no le impidieron seguir con su trabajo y en 1962 se hizo ciudadana Mejicana. Méjico le ofreció la oportunidad de seguir desarrollandose como artista y educadora. Se convirtió en la primera mujer profesora de escultura y presidenta del departamento de escultura de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méjico, donde dio clases hasta que se retiró en 1975

Continuó trabajando hasta bien pasados los noventa años. Se han hecho exposiciones de su obra en todo el mundo y  se la considera como una  de las más importantes artistas afroamericanas del siglo XX

Elizabeth Catlett

1915–2012

Sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett used her art to advocate for social change in both the U.S. and her adopted country of Mexico for almost three-quarters of a century. 

The granddaughter of former slaves, Catlett was raised in Washington, D.C. Her father died before she was born and her mother held several jobs to raise three children. Refused admission to Carnegie Institute of Technology because of her race, Catlett enrolled at Howard University, where her teachers included artist Lois Mailou Jones and philospher Alain Locke. She graduated with honors in 1935 and went on to earn the first the first M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa five years later.

Grant Wood, her painting teacher at Iowa, encouraged students to make art about what they knew best and to experiment with different mediums, inspiring Catlett to create lithographs, linoleum cuts, and sculpture in wood, stone, clay, and bronze. She drew subjects from African American and later Mexican life.

In 1946, a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation enabled Catlett to move to Mexico City with her husband, printmaker Charles White. There she joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, an influential and political group of printmakers. At the Taller, Catlett met the Mexican artist Francisco Mora, whom she married after divorcing White and with whom she had three sons.

Catlett taught at the National School of Fine Arts in Mexico City from 1958 until her retirement in 1976, producing realistic and highly stylized two- and three-dimensional figures. Her subjects ranged from tender maternal images to confrontational symbols of the Black Power movement, to portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and the writer Phyllis Wheatley.

During the past 40 years, museums and galleries have held more than 50 solo exhibitions of Catlett's sculptures and prints, including important retrospectives in 1993 and 1998. Catlett continued to make art through her mid-90s,  while dividing her time between New York and Cuernavaca.

- See more at: http://www.nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/elizabeth-catlett#sthash.oyLak3Y3.dpuf

Elizabeth Catlett

1915–2012

Sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett used her art to advocate for social change in both the U.S. and her adopted country of Mexico for almost three-quarters of a century. 

The granddaughter of former slaves, Catlett was raised in Washington, D.C. Her father died before she was born and her mother held several jobs to raise three children. Refused admission to Carnegie Institute of Technology because of her race, Catlett enrolled at Howard University, where her teachers included artist Lois Mailou Jones and philospher Alain Locke. She graduated with honors in 1935 and went on to earn the first the first M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa five years later.

Grant Wood, her painting teacher at Iowa, encouraged students to make art about what they knew best and to experiment with different mediums, inspiring Catlett to create lithographs, linoleum cuts, and sculpture in wood, stone, clay, and bronze. She drew subjects from African American and later Mexican life.

In 1946, a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation enabled Catlett to move to Mexico City with her husband, printmaker Charles White. There she joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, an influential and political group of printmakers. At the Taller, Catlett met the Mexican artist Francisco Mora, whom she married after divorcing White and with whom she had three sons.

Catlett taught at the National School of Fine Arts in Mexico City from 1958 until her retirement in 1976, producing realistic and highly stylized two- and three-dimensional figures. Her subjects ranged from tender maternal images to confrontational symbols of the Black Power movement, to portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and the writer Phyllis Wheatley.

During the past 40 years, museums and galleries have held more than 50 solo exhibitions of Catlett's sculptures and prints, including important retrospectives in 1993 and 1998. Catlett continued to make art through her mid-90s,  while dividing her time between New York and Cuernavaca.

- See more at: http://www.nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/elizabeth-catlett#sthash.oyLak3Y3.dpuf

Elizabeth Catlett

1915–2012

Sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett used her art to advocate for social change in both the U.S. and her adopted country of Mexico for almost three-quarters of a century. 

The granddaughter of former slaves, Catlett was raised in Washington, D.C. Her father died before she was born and her mother held several jobs to raise three children. Refused admission to Carnegie Institute of Technology because of her race, Catlett enrolled at Howard University, where her teachers included artist Lois Mailou Jones and philospher Alain Locke. She graduated with honors in 1935 and went on to earn the first the first M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa five years later.

Grant Wood, her painting teacher at Iowa, encouraged students to make art about what they knew best and to experiment with different mediums, inspiring Catlett to create lithographs, linoleum cuts, and sculpture in wood, stone, clay, and bronze. She drew subjects from African American and later Mexican life.

In 1946, a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation enabled Catlett to move to Mexico City with her husband, printmaker Charles White. There she joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, an influential and political group of printmakers. At the Taller, Catlett met the Mexican artist Francisco Mora, whom she married after divorcing White and with whom she had three sons.

Catlett taught at the National School of Fine Arts in Mexico City from 1958 until her retirement in 1976, producing realistic and highly stylized two- and three-dimensional figures. Her subjects ranged from tender maternal images to confrontational symbols of the Black Power movement, to portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and the writer Phyllis Wheatley.

During the past 40 years, museums and galleries have held more than 50 solo exhibitions of Catlett's sculptures and prints, including important retrospectives in 1993 and 1998. Catlett continued to make art through her mid-90s,  while dividing her time between New York and Cuernavaca.

- See more at: http://www.nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/elizabeth-catlett#sthash.oyLak3Y3.dpuf