About the Exhibition

My Art Speaks for Both My Peoples featured nine important prints by noted African American artist Elizabeth Catlett when it opened in September 2021. The title echoed that of a 1970 article in Ebony Magazine in which Catlett is quoted saying, “I am inspired by black people, and Mexican people, my two peoples.” The prints were all, as Catlett biographer Melanie Herzog wrote, “politically charged and aesthetically compelling graphic… images.” Collectively, they highlighted three overarching themes in the artist’s oeuvre: identity, collaboration, and activism. These themes intertwined throughout the artist’s career, each overlapping with another, beginning when she was a student in painting and sculpture at the University of Iowa, and then as a teacher and activist in New Orleans, Chicago and New York. Catlett began her work as a printmaker at the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City, an experience that was initially funded by two Rosenwald Fellowships. In 1947, she married artist Francisco Mora, raised a family, became a Mexican citizen in 1962, and was the first female sculpture professor in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Throughout her career, Catlett’s sculpture and prints reflected intersections of African American and Indigenous Mexican people’s histories and experiences, some of which were highlighted in this exhibition.

The exhibition was curated by Patricia Hobbs, Senior Curator of Art, and developed with the assistance of Nneka Dennie, Assistant Professor of History; Lena Hill, Provost; Michael Hill, Professor of Africana Studies; and Mohamed Kamara, Professor of Romance Languages. It was made possible by a special loan from the Sragow Gallery in New York City, as well as the generous support of Mrs. Jane Joel Knox, who provided funds and the initial impetus to add Catlett prints to the Museums’ art collection.