“Sharecropper reveals Elizabeth Catlett’s lifelong concern for the oppressed and the dignity of women. The print focuses on a female farm worker whose face, made rough and leathery by years of toil, is nonetheless determined and commanding.⁣

After the Civil War, many former slaves became sharecroppers, or farmers who worked on rented land and received an agreed share of the crop as payment. This economic system trapped many of these African Americans, as well as white workers, in a cycle of poverty. Set in the 1950s, Catlett’s Sharecropper refers to the injustices that this unfair system exerted on the poor. ⁣

Emphasizing the triumph of the worker over her harsh conditions, Catlett represented this poor, anonymous figure with the strength, dignity, and heroism generally reserved for individuals of power.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett ⁣ Sharecropper ⁣ 1952⁣ “Sharecropper

In Phillis Wheatley I proved intellectual equality in the midst of slavery ⁣⁣

“Portrait of poet Phillis Wheatley seated with quill pen and paper, with enslaved black women in the background. This is one of fourteen of a series of linocuts by Mexican and American artist Elizabeth Catlett, which was first produced in 1946-47, under the series title "I Am the Negro Woman." This edition was reprinted by the artist in 1989 with the updated title "I am the Black Woman." The series declares a narrative about the black woman in America, with each image and title presenting one phrase of the narrative.”⁣⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett ⁣⁣ In Phillis Wheatley I proved

“Lithograph in black ink on paper of a young boy’s head in profile view. His head is elongated diagonally in a stylized fashion, from his jaw to the crown of his head. The boy is looking to the right and has short hair and abstracted features. His head is shaded such that light appears to be illuminating the front of his face. The background consists of an abstract linear design. Below the image, “Black is beautiful” is written in pencil to the left, and “E Catlett 68” is written at the right edge.”⁣

(DuSable Museum of African American History)⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett ⁣ Niño Negro⁣ 1968⁣ “Lithograph in black

“This print is sixth in a series of fifteen linoleum cuts that Catlett created to commemorate black women’s labor and to honor renowned heroines. Born Isabella Baumfree to an enslaved family in nineteenth-century Ulster County, New York, Sojourner Truth became an influential antislavery activist, memoirist, and feminist. Catlett shows her as a commanding figure, filling the picture plane, who stares out toward the viewer with a penetrating gaze. Truth’s strong, somewhat oversized hands—one points heavenward while the other rests next to a Bible—testify to her faith and commitment to the cause of abolition. One senses the artist’s own hand at work in the deep, direct incising of lines that characterizes her printmaking technique.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ I'm Sojourner Truth...⁣ 1947⁣ “This

“A linoleum block print showing a woman in a headscarf and an apron, based on a photograph by Dorothea Lange called "Ex-slave with a Long Memory" taken in Alabama in 1937 or 1938.”⁣

(Print: The Historic New Orleans Collection⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ Survivor ⁣ 1983⁣ “A linoleum block print

“Much of Elizabeth Catlett’s career was spent teaching, as her original intention was to be an art teacher. After receiving her undergraduate degree, her first teaching position was in the Durham, NC school system. She taught art at Hillside HighSchool. However, she became very dissatisfied with the position because black teachers were paid less. Along with Thurgood Marshall, she participated in an unsuccessful campaign to gain equal pay. After graduate school, she accepted a position at Dillard University in New Orleans in the 1940s. There, she arranged a special trip to the Delgado Museum of Art to see the Picasso exhibit. As the museum was closed to black people at the time, the group went on a day it was closed to the public. She eventually went on to chair the art department at Dillard. Her next teaching position was with the George Washington Carver School, a community alternative school in Harlem, where she taught art and other cultural subjects to workers enrolled in night classes. Her last major teaching position was with the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), starting in 1958, where she was the first female professor of sculpture. One year later, she was appointed the head of the sculpture department despite protests that she was a woman and a foreigner. She remained with the school until her retirement in 1975.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ Head ⁣ 1947⁣ “Much of Elizabeth

“Phillis Wheatley (about 1753/55–1784), born in West Africa and brought to Massachusetts as a slave, was a gifted writer. She is noted for being the first person of African descent to write and publish a book of poetry in the English language. Elizabeth Catlett sculpted Wheatley to honor both the poet and black women. Catlett based her work on a contemporary portrait of Wheatley but also took some artistic license. Catlett, for example, gave Wheatley perfect features that many women of West African heritage share. Referring to African art, Catlett shaped the figure's eyes to look like those found on many West African figures, and she made this work from bronze, a material often used in West African sculpture. Finally, although Catlett dressed the woman in the kind of bonnet that Wheatley probably wore, she provided no other clues except the work's title to connect this figure with a particular individual, country, or time. All of these details suggest both a portrait of Wheatley and an idealized image of black womanhood.⁣⁣

Wheatley gained her freedom when she was a young woman, and several of her poems called for the abolition of slavery. Catlett showed the young writer's intellect by portraying her with her finger on her cheek, a gesture that indicates she is thoughtful and self-possessed. Wheatley was posed this way in an engraving made by the black artist Scipio Moorhead, which served as the frontispiece for her 1773 book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣⁣ Phillis Wheatley⁣⁣ 1973⁣⁣ “Phillis

1967⁣ “Rendering of the head of a woman turned slightly to her right, eyes gazing at the viewer. Inscribed at lower middle "To Vivian and John, with love" 18/50. The correct title of this print is "Mujer Negra (Pauline).'”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ Head of a Woman⁣ 1967⁣ “Rendering of the

“Elizabeth Catlett has said that the purpose of her art is to "present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy." As a sculptor and printmaker, she blends figurative and abstract traditions with social concerns, and has maintained a deep belief in the democratic power of printed art to reach a large audience. She has completed some eighty prints in woodcut, screenprint, lithography, and, most importantly, linoleum cut, a technique she learned at El Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop). This renowned workshop and artists' collective was first visited by Catlett while she was in Mexico City on a fellowship in 1946. The workshop's aim is to continue the Mexican tradition of socially engaged public art. It specializes in linoleum cut, as it is a technique that is easy to work with, produces inexpensive prints, and can accommodate large editions.⁣

Catlett's attraction to Mexican printmaking reflects a social and political concern she shares with the great muralists. Like them she uses her art to advance causes of particular interest to her, including the African-American experience and the plight of the lower classes. Many of her prints show the multidimensional aspects of women as mothers, workers, and activists. Sharecropper evokes Catlett's belief in the strength and dignity of the working poor, while it also offers a heroic portrait of this anonymous woman. She also depicts great women from African-American history, including Harriet Tubman, who is shown here leading slaves to freedom as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Catlett's continued support of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s is visible in the print completed after Malcolm X was shot and killed. It expresses Catlett's enthusiasm for the leader's successful efforts in inspiring pride in African-American women.”⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ Harriet⁣ 1975⁣ “Elizabeth Catlett has

“Though primarily known as a sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett has also created a significant body of work as a printmaker. Madonna (1982) is a lithograph print, a reproduction technique in which the artist first creates an image on fine-grained sandstone (or aluminum plate) with a grease-based implement such as a pencil, crayon or wash. Via a multi-stepped process, the image is fixed to the stone, inked, and transferred to paper by means of a press. The significance of Catlett’s printmaking is enhanced by the artist’s reminder that a print “is a suitable medium for public art — easy and inexpensive and you can make the editions as large as you need them.”⁣

Whether working as a printmaker or sculptor, Catlett has ever upheld her commitment to revealing a “black aesthetic,” one that would empower black artists and viewers. In Madonna, she transforms the traditional motif of Mary and the infant Jesus into an African-American madonna and child. Catlett deeply wished “public art to have meaning for Black people, so that they will have some art they can identify with, so they will be encouraged to explore what the museums and galleries have to offer them.””⁣

 Elizabeth Catlett⁣ Madonna⁣ 1982⁣ “Though primarily known

“Sharecropper calls attention to the tribulations of tenant farming—a system in which rent for the land is paid by the farmer with a part of the crop, creating an impossible-to-escape cycle of debt—while also offering a portrait of an anonymous sharecropper.⁣

As a sculptor and printmaker, Catlett blended figurative and abstract traditions with social concerns and maintained a deep belief in the democratic power of printed art to reach a large audience. Her printmaking practice included woodcut, screenprint, lithography, and, most importantly, linoleum cut, which she learned at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop) in Mexico City. Founded in 1937, the workshop aimed to continue the Mexican tradition of socially engaged public art. It specialized in linoleum cut, a technique that produces inexpensive prints and can accommodate large editions. Catlett first visited this renowned workshop and artists’ collective while she was in Mexico on a fellowship in 1946, where she found a kinship with the Mexican muralists, including Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Like them she tried, she explained, to make art “for the people, for the struggling people, to whom only realism is meaningful.””⁣