Elizabeth Catlett

...special houses...
1946, printed 1989

Two frowning Black figures stand before a row of apartment buildings.

Not on view

Date
1946, printed 1989

Classification
Prints

Medium
Linoleum cut

Dimensions
Sheet (Irregular): 10 1/8 × 7 9/16in. (25.7 × 19.2 cm) Image: 4 3/16 × 5 15/16in. (10.6 × 15.1 cm)

Accession number
95.201

Series
The Negro Woman, 1946-47 (re-titled The Black Woman, 1989)

Edition
13/20 | Second print run

Publication
Printed by Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee

Rights and reproductions
© Catlett Mora Family Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/10151

Audio

Elizabeth Catlett, Prints

From Where We Are (Spanish)

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Elizabeth Catlett, Prints

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David Breslin: Elizabeth Catlett realizó esta serie de grabados llamada I Am the Negro Woman, en 1947, en su taller en la Ciudad de México.
Narrator: David Breslin es el Curador Familia DeMartini y Director de la colección.
David Breslin: Esta serie de obras son grabados sobre linóleo que muestran a personajes, como Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth y Phyllis Wheatley, y la idea de que su labor —ahora famosa labor de mujeres negras— debe ser celebrada, vista y convertida en un modelo a seguir. Como parte de esta serie también hay obras dedicadas a “mujeres desconocidas” y al trabajo invisible —bien fuera en el hogar, en los campos o en las fábricas—, una labor que pasaba inadvertida y que nadie consideraba heroica. La propuesta de Catlett era no sólo celebrar a figuras ejemplares como [Sojourner] Truth, sino celebrar también el trabajo diario de las desconocidas, de aquellas que realizan su trabajo sin recibir atención alguna.
Elizabeth Catlett, Prints

From Where We Are

0:00

Elizabeth Catlett, Prints

0:00

David Breslin: Elizabeth Catlett made this body of prints, I Am the Negro Woman, in 1947 at a workshop in Mexico City.
Narrator: David Breslin is the DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the collection.
David Breslin: This group of works are linoleum woodcuts that feature some known figures like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Phyllis Wheatley, and the idea that their labor—now-famous black women’s labor—should be celebrated, seen, and be made as a model. But also within this group of works are “unknown women” and the invisible labor. Whether it’s in the home, or in the field, or in the factory, that frequently wasn’t seen or wasn’t made heroic. For Catlett, the idea was not only to celebrate these exemplary figures like [Sojourner] Truth, but also to celebrate the everyday labor of ones who have not been noticed—who go unnoticed throughout their work.