Elizabeth Catlett has become a giant in the world of art for both her sculpture and printmaking. Born in Washington, DC, she received her BS cum laude from Howard in 1935 and an M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa in 1940. In 1946 Catlett won a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship allowing her to travel to Mexico. This trip changed the direction of her life. There she met and married fellow artist Francisco Mora, and made Mexico her home. Catlett describes her wish to "present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy." She is renowned for her powerful and positive depictions of African Americans (including Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman) and has never shied away from combining her political activism and her art.
Selected Collections:
*Art Institute of Chicago, IL
*Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
*Cincinnati Art Museum, OH
*High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
*Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
*Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI
*National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
*National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
*New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
*Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
*Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
*The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
*The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
*The Columbus Museum of Art, OH
*The DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL
*The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
*The Museum of Modern Art, New York
*The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
*Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
*Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
*Narodniko Musea (National Museum), Prague, Czechoslovakia
*Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
*Atlanta University, GA
*Fisk University, Nashville, TN
*Hampton University, VA
*Howard University, Washington, DC
*Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
*University of Iowa, Iowa City, IO
*Instituto National de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
*Library of Congress, Washington, DC
*Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York
