Deep Meaningful Inspiring Easy Drawings

Elizabeth Catlett Sharecropper 1952, published 1968–70

Catlett once said that the purpose of her work was to "present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy." Sharecropper calls attention to the tribulations of tenant farming—a system in which rent for the land is paid by the farmer with a part of the crop, creating an impossible-to-escape cycle of debt—while also offering a heroic portrait of an anonymous woman.

As a sculptor and printmaker, Catlett blended figurative and abstract traditions with social concerns and maintained a deep belief in the democratic power of printed art to reach a large audience. Her printmaking practice included woodcut, screenprint, lithography, and, most importantly, linoleum cut, which she learned at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop) in Mexico City. Founded in 1937, the workshop aimed to continue the Mexican tradition of socially engaged public art. It specialized in linoleum cut, a technique that produces inexpensive prints and can accommodate large editions. Catlett first visited this renowned workshop and artists' collective while she was in Mexico on a fellowship in 1946, where she found a kinship with the Mexican muralists, including Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Like them she tried, she explained, to make art "for the people, for the struggling people, to whom only realism is meaningful."

Publication excerpt from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)

Additional text

Elizabeth Catlett has said that the purpose of her art is to "present black people in their beauty and dignity for ourselves and others to understand and enjoy." As a sculptor and printmaker, she blends figurative and abstract traditions with social concerns, and has maintained a deep belief in the democratic power of printed art to reach a large audience. She has completed some eighty prints in woodcut, screenprint, lithography, and, most importantly, linoleum cut, a technique she learned at El Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop). This renowned workshop and artists' collective was first visited by Catlett while she was in Mexico City on a fellowship in 1946. The workshop's aim is to continue the Mexican tradition of socially engaged public art. It specializes in linoleum cut, as it is a technique that is easy to work with, produces inexpensive prints, and can accommodate large editions.

Catlett's attraction to Mexican printmaking reflects a social and political concern she shares with the great muralists. Like them she uses her art to advance causes of particular interest to her, including the African-American experience and the plight of the lower classes. Many of her prints show the multidimensional aspects of women as mothers, workers, and activists. Sharecropper evokes Catlett's belief in the strength and dignity of the working poor, while it also offers a heroic portrait of this anonymous woman. She also depicts great women from African-American history, including Harriet Tubman, who is shown here leading slaves to freedom as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Catlett's continued support of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s is visible in the print completed after Malcolm X was shot and killed. It expresses Catlett's enthusiasm for the leader's successful efforts in inspiring pride in African-American women.

Publication excerpt from an essay by Harper Montgomery and Sarah Suzuki, in Deborah Wye, Artists and Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, p. 218.

Medium

Linoleum cut

Dimensions

composition: 17 5/8 x 16 15/16" (44.8 x 43 cm); sheet: 18 1/2 x 18 15/16" (47 x 48.1 cm)

Publisher

Elizabeth Catlett, Mexico City, Taller de Gráfica Popular, Mexico City

Printer

Elizabeth Catlett, Mexico City

Edition

proof before the edition of 60

Credit

The Ralph E. Shikes Fund and Purchase

Object number

162.2003

Copyright

© 2021 Elizabeth Catlett / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Department

Drawings and Prints

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Deep Meaningful Inspiring Easy Drawings

Source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/88189

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