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.
- 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
- 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
- GERTRUDE Hand Drawn Lithograph, Young Black Girl Portrait, SunflowerBy Samella LewisLocated in Union City, NJGERTRUDE by the African American woman artist Samella Lewis, is an original hand drawn lithograph printed using hand lithography techniqu...Category
Early 2000s 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 sepia brown ink on archival Arches printmaking paper 100% acid free from a hand drawn lithography stone using traditional hand lithography techniques, not a photo reproduction or digital print. RABBI TEACHING is a realistic, detailed portrait depicting an elder Rabbi teaching a young boy. RABBI TEACHING is in good condition, superb craftsmanship, never been framed or mounted, pencil signed AP (Artists Proof) by Vladimir Dashevsky, printers chop mark embossed on lower corner, from the master printers private collection. Year printed - 1975 Print size - 22" x 30", unframed, good condition, slight handling on print margins, pencil signed by Vladimir Dashevsky Judaic Art...Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- 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
- 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
- Shepard Fairey Ian Curtis "Heart And Soul" Silkscreen Print Contemporary StreetBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Draper, UTOriginal Illustration based on photograph by Kevin Cummins. Signed by Shepard Fairey and Kevin Cummins. A portion of the proceeds went to CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). "...Category
15th Century and Earlier Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Shepard Fairey & David Bowie Screenprint "Moonage Daydream" Contemporary StreetBy Shepard FaireyLocated in Draper, UTDavidBowie is one of my favorite musicians not only because so many of his songs possess magic, but also because he was creatively fearless and perpetually collaborative. I first dis...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Shepard Fairey Warhol Collage Screenprint Contemporary Street Art Silver EditionBy 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
- 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
- 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