Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico

by Melanie Anne Herzog

Elizabeth Catlett, born in Washington, DC, in 1915, is widely acknowledged as a major presence in African American art, and her work is celebrated as a visually eloquent expression of African American identity and pride in cultural heritage. But this is not the whole story. She has lived in Mexico for 50 years, as a citizen of that country since 1962, and she and her husband, artist Francisco Mora, have raised their children there. For 20 years she was a member of the Taller de Grafica Popular (Popular Graphic Arts Workshop) and she was the first woman professor of sculpture at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Her extraordinary career has stretched from her years as a student at Howard University during the 1930s through various political and social movements--including the Chicago Renaissance of the 1940s, the Black Power and Black Arts movements, the Mexican Public Art Movement, and feminism--which have informed her art.

This richly illustrated and informative monograph is the first to document the full range of Catlett's life and work. In addition to thoroughly researching primary source materials and to critiquing individual art works with sensitivity and erudition, the author has conducted numerous interviews with Catlett and has analyzed with clarity the political context of her work and her diverse sympathies and allegiances. Herzog examines key artistic influences and shows how Catlett transformed an extraordinary stylistic vocabulary into a socially charged statement.

In tracing Catlett's long and continuing career as a graphic artist and sculptor in Mexico, Herzog explores an important period in Catlett's life between the 1950s and the 1970s about which almost nothing is known in the United States. She examines the "Mexicanness" in Catlett's work in its fluent relationship to the underlying and constant sense of African American identity she brought with her to Mexico. Herzog's solidly grounded interpretation offers a new way to understand Catlett's work and reveals this artist as a fascinating and pivotal intercultural figure whose powerful art manifests her firm belief that the visual arts can play a role in the construction of a meaningful identity, both transnational and ethnically grounded.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Ann Otto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently saw one of Elizabeth Catlett's lithographs of Mother and Child (circa 1940's) for the first time at an African-American exhibit at the Canton, Ohio Art Museum. I read Catlett's short biography and knew I had to know more about this woman's life and work. That image of mother and child is unforgettable, as are the many sculptures of the same topic done over her lifetime. The best work I found on the artist and her work is Melanie Herzog's. The book captures Catlett's life in periods up to 2000, and pictures most of her major work in various art media. Catlett died in 2012. Her life in Mexico starting in 1947 is especially interesting.

[Maureen Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work by Dr. Melanie Anne Herzog on one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century. Informed by her personal interviews with Elizabeth Catlett during her time in Mexico, this work sheds much needed light on a revolutionary artist that should become cannon in art history.

[Krista Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dissertation turned book. Definitely academic, but also a readable biography of the great Artist. The images included are wonderful.