Elizabeth CatlettCRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE Signed Linocut, Thurgood Marshall Portrait, Civil Rights2001
2001
About the Item
- Creator:Elizabeth Catlett (1915 - 2012, American)
- Creation Year:2001
- Dimensions:Height: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Width: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Mint condition, never been framed or mounted, pencil signed, titled, dated and inscribed P.P.(Printers Proof) aside from the edition of 100, printers chop on lower corner, print documentation/COA provided.
- Gallery Location:Union City, NJ
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU832313882302
Elizabeth Catlett
Promoting social change was Elizabeth Catlett’s prime motivation as an artist. The granddaughter of enslaved people, Catlett was born in Washington, D.C., in 1915 and spent her adult life driven to create sculptures, prints and paintings that would reach, celebrate and uplift those who were barely visible in art.
“I have always wanted my art to service Black people — to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential,” Catlett said of her work in the 1978 book Art: African American. She studied art history, drawing and other disciplines at Howard University, and as an MFA student at the University of Iowa, her mentor, the painter Grant Wood, advised her to “take as her subject what she knew best.” As she later told an interviewer, “The thing that I knew the most about was Black women, because I am one, and I lived with them all my life, so that’s what I started working with.”
The centerpiece of Catlett’s spring 1940 thesis project, Negro Mother and Child — a figure of a Black mother embracing her child, carved from Indiana limestone — was awarded first place for sculpture at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago held that year.
Catlett taught art at Dillard University in New Orleans — where she battled discrimination daily — and met her first husband, artist Charles White, while living in Chicago. She resigned from Dillard in 1942 and moved to New York City. There Catlett befriended painter Jacob Lawrence and studied lithography and other media at the Art Students League. Inspired by her studies with Ossip Zadkine, she began to incorporate abstract forms into her wood and stone sculptures.
In 1946, a grant supported her travel to Mexico to study its murals and graphic art. As Catlett had experienced the barbaric and deeply destructive system of racial segregation that the Jim Crow laws enforced in the United States, Mexico felt like a welcome escape. She would make the country her home and create much of her work there, divorcing White and marrying painter and printmaker Francisco Mora of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP, in 1947. She collaborated with TGP, a graphic arts workshop dedicated to social issues located in Mexico City, on a number of works, including one of her best-known linoleum cut prints, Sharecropper (1952). The heroic depiction of an anonymous farm worker was intended to draw attention to the plight of Black tenant farmers who were ruthlessly exploited by the era’s white landowners.
Another iconic work of Catlett’s is Black Unity (1968), a raised fist sculpted from cedar, smooth and gleaming, with one side taking the form of two faces that resemble carved African masks. In the same year, the raised fist, a powerful symbol of the Civil Rights struggle and emblem of the Black Power movement, had been immortalized by two Black American athletes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who raised their black-gloved fists during the playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Catlett was a professor of sculpture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s School of Fine Arts in Mexico City from 1958 until 1976, when she retired to focus on making art, exhibiting extensively in the years that followed. In 2003, she completed the Ralph Ellison Memorial in New York’s Riverside Park. That same year she received a lifetime achievement award from the International Sculpture Center. Her work is in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Find a range of authentic Elizabeth Catlett art today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Union City, NJ
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- GLORY Signed Linocut, Poetic Female Portrait, Black Woman, White Line DrawingBy Elizabeth CatlettLocated in Union City, NJGLORY is a hand pulled, original limited edition relief print by the American and Mexican woman artist, printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett. GLORY was created using linocut printmaking techniques on cream colored archival Pescia paper, made in Italy, 100% acid free. GLORY is a poetic female portrait expressed as a white line drawing depicting a upright postured black woman standing in profile view, her arm resting on a chair back, framed by plants and foliage in the background. Printed from Catlett's masterly carved linoleum block; a very strong impression printed by hand in a taupe brown ink on warm buff color printmaking paper. GLORY is unframed, in mint condition, pencil signed, titled, dated on the lower margin by Elizabeth Catlett, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation will be provided. Print size - 23.5" x 15" unframed, excellent condition, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Edition size - 60 Year printed - 2008 Printer - JK Fine Art Editions Co. Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLinocut
- CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE Signed Linocut Portrait, Thurgood Marshall, Civil RightsBy Elizabeth CatlettLocated in Union City, NJCRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE is a hand pulled original limited edition relief print created using linocut printmaking techniques on white archival heavyweight paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed by Ms. Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. CRUSADERS FOR JUSTICE was created as a tribute to Thurgood Marshall, civil rights lawyer and first African-American appointed to the US Supreme Court. As a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall championed civil rights and was the lead lawyer in the pivotal Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka (1954). This impactful graphic statement by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett, portrays a powerful black and white portrait of Thurgood Marshall with two seated figures, a male and female, engaged in legal counsel in the foreground. Print size - 29.5 x 21.5 in., image size - 22.5 x 18 in., unframed, excellent condition, strong impression, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Edition size - 100 Year published - 2001 Printer - JK Fine Art Editions Co., NJ Published by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Thurgood Marshall Institute "The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis." -Thurgood Marshall Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 2, 2012, Cuernavaca, Mexico), American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker renowned for her intensely political art. Catlett, a granddaughter of enslaved people, was born into a middle-class Washington family; her father was a professor of mathematics at Tuskegee Institute. After being disallowed entrance into the Carnegie Institute of Technology because she was Black, Catlett enrolled at Howard University...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLinocut
- THE DOORWAY Signed Lithograph, Woman, Sleeping Cat, Victorian Stained GlassBy Will BarnetLocated in Union City, NJTHE DOORWAY by the American painter and printmaker Will Barnet (born May 25, 1911 - died Nov. 13, 2012) is an original 12-color, hand drawn lithograph, with gold and silver silkscree...Category
1990s Contemporary Interior Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- PORTRAIT OF JOHN ROTHSCHILD Signed Lithograph Seated Man with Pipe, Sailor ShirtBy Alice NeelLocated in Union City, NJPORTRAIT OF JOHN ROTHSCHILD is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the American woman painter Alice Neel printed on archival Arches paper, 100% acid free, using tra...Category
1980s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- RABBI TEACHING Signed Lithograph, Rabbi and Young Boy, Jewish Art, JudaismLocated in Union City, NJRABBI TEACHING is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph printed in black ink on archival Arches printmaking paper 100% acid free from a hand drawn lithography stone usin...Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- SABBATH ANGELS Signed Lithograph, Watercolor Portrait, Angels, CandlesticksBy Chaim GrossLocated in Union City, NJSABBATH ANGELS is an original hand drawn lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) by the American artist/sculptor Chaim Gross, presenting an impressive sculptural drawing of two majestic female angels welcoming the sabbath as two lit candlesticks glow beneath the wings of the yellow angel. SABBATH ANGELS was hand proofed and printed from lithographic plates on archival Arches paper, 100% acid free. SABBATH ANGELS is a contemporary style angel portrait measuring 14 x 20.5 inches, image size is 9.25 x 15 inches, a very fine impression pulled from hand drawn lithography plates. Printed in transparent watercolor shades of light blue, light brown red, yellow and graphite black for the pencil drawing using the age-old hand printing methods first used in fine art lithography printmaking. Chaim Gross,(1904 - 1991) was a sculptor, artist, and teacher, known for his wood carvings, sculptures of moving human figures, religious imagery, acrobats, mothers and children. Chaim was born on March 17, 1904 to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia. During World War I, Russian forces invaded Austria-Hungary; amidst the turmoil, the Grosses fled Kolomyia. They returned when Austria retook the town in 1915, refugees of the war. When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest, where Gross attended the city's art academy and studied with painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before emigrating to New York City in 1921. In the U.S., Gross's studies continued at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied sculpture with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League, with sculptor Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Gross exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club (the precursor to the Whitney Museum of American Art). In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. Also in 1932, Gross married Renee Nechin (1909-2005), and they had two children, Yehuda and Mimi (Mimi Gross is a New York-based artist, and was married to the artist Red Grooms from 1963-1976). In 1933, Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures for schools and public colleges, and created works for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the 1937 Exposition universelle in Paris. Chaim Gross, Sculptor by Josef Vincent Lombardo, the first major book on Gross, came out in 1949 and included a catalogue raisonne of his sculpture. In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with famed bronze foundries including the Nicci foundry. In 1959, a survey of Gross's sculpture in wood, stone, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with work by Abraham Rattner, Doris Caesar, and Karl Knaths. In 1963, Gross and his family moved from their longtime residence at 30 W. 105th Street to Greenwich Village, following the purchase of a four-story historic townhouse at 526 LaGuardia Place, which is now the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation. In 1974, the Smithsonian American Art Museum held the exhibition, Chaim Gross: Sculpture and Drawings, and in 1976, a selection from Gross's important collection of historic African...Category
1980s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- REFLECTIONBy Will BarnetLocated in Aventura, FLHand signed, titled and numbered in pencil by the artist. AP edition. Artwork is in excellent condition. Additional images are available upon request. Certificate of Authenticity is ...Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen, Paper
- Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, 1980/2022 (pink)By Andy WarholLocated in Manchester, GBAndy Warhol, Debbie Harry, 1980/2022 (pink) Paper size 100 × 100 cm Image size 80 × 80 cm Matt 250gsm conservation digital paper. A very versatile high quality paper made in German...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- I Love Lucy TM Vitameatavegamin TM Licensed Artwork on CanvasBy Rich ConleyLocated in Boca Raton, FLNotice -- This is NOT a poster in a tube like many items you see for sale on 1stdibs. This is a giclee on professional CANVAS and arrives to you READY TO HANG on your wall. This piece is on 1.5 inch museum-quality stretcher bars. What a great gift for the Lucy fan! Rich Conley is regarded as one of this generation's foremost caricaturists. Conley is an authorized, licensed artist of The Three Stooges (C3 Entertainment) and I Love Lucy...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsInkjet, Canvas
- Shepard Fairey Screen Print Protect Biodiversity - Cultivate Harmony Street ArtBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Draper, UTSilkscreen Print on Fine Art Cream Speckletone 24 × 18 in | 61 × 45.7 cm Edition of 500 Silkscreen / Graffiti and Street Art / Pop and Contemporary Pop / Cultural Commentary / Contemporary Academic Realism "The Earth's eco-system is beautifully complex but fragile. Biodiversity is essential to maintain the delicate balance our world needs to remain healthy. 68% of the Earth's species have disappeared in the last 50 years alone. Many beautiful creatures are gone forever, and each loss erodes the foundation of our eco-system. My poster...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Andy Warhol, Elvis 2 Times, 1963/2022By Andy WarholLocated in Manchester, GBAndy Warhol, Elvis 2 Times, 1963/2022 Paper size 127 × 107 cm Image size 108 × 94 cm Matt 250gsm conservation digital paper In 1963, Andy Warhol created his iconic series of Elvi...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Shepard Fairey "Warhol Collage" Screenprint Contemporary Street Art Obey GiantBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Draper, UTOriginal Illustration based on photograph by Karen Bystedt. Signed by Shepard Fairey and Karen Bystedt. Comes with C.O.A. from New Union Gallery. "I’ve been a fan of Andy Warhol’s ...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen