2020.30.3
Title
2020.30.3
Creator
Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915-2012)
Date
1962
Original Format
Linocut on paper
Label
No hay escuela (There is no school), 1962
By Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915-2012)
Linocut on paper
Artist’s proof
Signed, titled, dated and numbered AP 1
Museum Purchase made possible in part by a generous gift from Jane Joel Knox
You might think to yourself: Why is it closed?
Catlett received a Rosenwald fellowship in 1946 to study sculpture and to make prints at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Arts Workshop) in Mexico City. The TGP was a community of activist artists dedicated to creating inexpensive, accessible art in support of and for the masses. There, she produced her "Negro Woman" series of fifteen linocuts (later "Black Woman"), an epic commemoration of the historic oppression, resistance, and survival of African American women. She repeated images from this series in later works, including To marry and Malcolm X speaks for us.
Many of her prints done at TGP highlighted the need for literacy and education among the poor. Catlett completed the linocut No hay escuela (There is no school) in 1962, the year she became a Mexican citizen. Because of her activism and socialist leanings, Catlett was barred from re-entering the United States. Although exiled, she continued to produce art that transcended national borders, exploring personal connections between African American and Indigenous Mexican peoples.
By Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915-2012)
Linocut on paper
Artist’s proof
Signed, titled, dated and numbered AP 1
Museum Purchase made possible in part by a generous gift from Jane Joel Knox
You might think to yourself: Why is it closed?
Catlett received a Rosenwald fellowship in 1946 to study sculpture and to make prints at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Arts Workshop) in Mexico City. The TGP was a community of activist artists dedicated to creating inexpensive, accessible art in support of and for the masses. There, she produced her "Negro Woman" series of fifteen linocuts (later "Black Woman"), an epic commemoration of the historic oppression, resistance, and survival of African American women. She repeated images from this series in later works, including To marry and Malcolm X speaks for us.
Many of her prints done at TGP highlighted the need for literacy and education among the poor. Catlett completed the linocut No hay escuela (There is no school) in 1962, the year she became a Mexican citizen. Because of her activism and socialist leanings, Catlett was barred from re-entering the United States. Although exiled, she continued to produce art that transcended national borders, exploring personal connections between African American and Indigenous Mexican peoples.
Credit Line
Museums at Washington & Lee University
Citation
Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915-2012), “2020.30.3,” Museums at Washington and Lee University: Online Exhibits, accessed May 17, 2024, https://exhibits-museums.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/407.