American Herstory: Elizabeth Catlett - A Pioneer Redefining Art Through Feminism and Black Identity
A few weeks after the conclusion of the exhibition Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies, it is important to reflect on the journey of this extraordinary Black artist of the 20th century. A life marked by challenges tied not only to her identity as a woman but, above all, to her Afro-American heritage, which today is celebrated and remembered.
At the Brooklyn Museum, from September 13, 2024, to January 19, 2025, a major retrospective was held dedicated to the Mexican-American sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (Washington, 1915 – Cuernavaca, 2012). The exhibition was co-organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington and presented in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. Curated by Dalila Scruggs of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Catherine Morris of the Brooklyn Museum, and Mary Lee Corlett, with the support of assistant curator Rashieda Witter, the exhibition was hosted on the fourth floor of the museum, home to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art since 2007. The center was inaugurated with the exhibition Global Feminisms, curated by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin, which marked an important milestone as it represented the first international exhibition entirely dedicated to feminist art since 1990. It focused on contemporary female artists and aimed to go beyond the 1970s feminist movement, which was tied to a predominantly Western framework. The exhibition featured artists from all over the world, embodying diverse identities, justifying the plural form of "feminisms." Since 2007, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center has been a promoter of many exhibitions dedicated to contemporary and historical female artists. This time, however, it goes even deeper, dedicating a major retrospective to an artist who, even before the feminist waves, managed to produce revolutionary works about women – and for women – as well as about the African American community – and for the African American community. Elizabeth Catlett was neither the first nor the only artist to bring the figure of the Black woman to the forefront in art, but she represents one of the most significant examples of how, through herwork as an artist, political activist, and educator, she managed to carve out a crucial space to represent African American women. Her figure is still of great importance today, not only for the determination with which she upheld her ideals but also for the influence she exerted on subsequent generations, inspiring them both through the power of her art and through her role as an educator.
The title of the exhibition is taken from Catlett's 1970 speech: “I have been, and am currently, and always hope to be a Black Revolutionary Artist and all that it implies.” These words clearly reveal her identity and commitment: an artist deeply aware of her roots, revolutionary in her approach, and determined to place her art in service of the struggle for social justice and the emancipation of Black people.
This speech, delivered via telephone to the participants of the Conference on the Functional Aspects of Black Art in Chicago, came at a time when the artist, born in Washington but living in Mexico since 1946, had been denied entry to the United States for years due to her political activism and her involvement with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a group engaged in sociopolitical printmaking.
From a young age, she experienced discrimination and racism as the granddaughter of freed slaves, and later personally encountered what it meant to be rejected by the Carnegie Technical Institute because of the color of her skin.
This did not stop her, but rather drove her to graduate from Howard University, where she also encountered the atmosphere of the Harlem Renaissance, and then from the University of Iowa, where she became the first African American woman to earn a Master in Fine Arts. However, her life drastically changed when she moved to Mexico, where she had more freedom to express her views through her art and had the opportunity to educate future generations.
Although her move to Mexico limited the recognition of her work in the U.S. in the past, it became a free and safe place for her. In 1958, she became the first woman to hold the position of sculpture professor at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum was a comprehensive showcase of her entire body of work, featuring more than 200 pieces, from print works to both her most and least well-known sculptures. Elizabeth Catlett’s work serves as a powerful tool of protest, evident in both her more intimate pieces and her boldest creations. Her art is meant to speak directly to her people and be rooted in their experiences. This intent also inspired her choice to focus on printmaking and create works that could be easily understood by the public. Among the works on display were some of her most famous sculptures, such as Target (1970), a bronze portrait of an African American man behind a target crosshair. A similar terracotta piece with the same title, but without the crosshair, had already been created in 1955. It is striking to note that in the same year, in New York in 1955, Jasper Johns began working on his Target series, sparking a reflection on the object and painting as a medium, which would go on to change the course of art history—but in an entirely different direction. Elizabeth Catlett’s Target was created while the artist was already living in Mexico. However, she had experienced New York, particularly Harlem, a central hub for African American issues at the time, and she felt an urgent need to denounce the reality that the "target" was the Black man. Another ten years would pass before the Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation were abolished.
The exhibition also included The Black Woman (1989)—originally titled The Negro Woman in 1946—a series of 15 linocuts that highlight the roles of countless Black women as field laborers, domestic workers, or activists. One of her most iconic works, Black Unity (1968–69), a celebration of Black pride, was also prominently featured.
In recent years, more and more artists have used art as a means of denouncing racial discrimination and the social injustices faced by Black people. A work like A Subtlety by Kara Walker—installed at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2014—stands out for its provocative, disruptive, and bold power. By leveraging the stereotype of the "mammy," the piece condemns the racism and sexual objectification of Black women. Elizabeth Catlett, on the other hand, often adopts a more intimate language to convey her messages, finding inspiration for her works in the lack of representation and recognition of her people, even in the simplest moments of everyday life. As early as the 1940s, the artist was working on the theme of motherhood, both in sculpture and print, challenging a central motif in Western art history: the iconography of the Madonna and Child. Catlett reinterprets the theme to include Black features and identities. In this way, beyond her overtly political works, she highlights how the marginalization of Black people has permeated every aspect of society. She invites us to rethink the dominant visual paradigms that have excluded entire communities from cultural narratives. The retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum not only honored her legacy by providing her with the deserved recognition through an exceptionally comprehensive exhibition but also reaffirmed the pressing need to continue questioning the cultural paradigms that still shape the way we view and interpret the world today.
Sources:
Brooklyn Museum. (2024, September 13 – 2025, January 19). Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies [Exhibition]. Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, USA. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/elizabeth-catlett
Hessel, K. (2022). The Story of Art without Men. Cornerstone.
Scruggs, D. (2024, September 13). In Elizabeth Catlett’s Work, Beauty Became Direct Action. Brooklyn Museum. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/stories/elizabeth-catlett-biography-politics Dickerman, L. (2021, May 7). Elizabeth Catlett’s Mother and Child. MOMA. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/560
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