Elizabeth Catlett was born in 1915 in Washington, DC. In her prints, paintings, and sculptures, Catlett united a modernist approach to structure with a political sensibility informed by her experiences as a Black woman. She drew from family memories and autobiographical source material as she composed expressive portraits and busts that lionized the intricacies of Black identity: labor, historical struggles, and the civil rights movement were frequent themes. Catlett studied at Howard University before pursuing graduate art studies at the University of Iowa. She eventually moved to New York, then to Mexico City, where she was inspired by the city’s lauded printmakers and muralists. She died in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2012. Her work has been shown in New York, London, Mexico City, and Los Angeles and belongs in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.
