Artist Birthday: Elizabeth Catlett

Elizabeth Catlett’s body of work as an artist was predominantly intended to connect with and honor achievements of African Americans, particularly women. Her works about women such as this army nurse pointed out how African Americans had a parallel history with white women making important contributions to American society, one that needed to be made known and celebrated.

Artist birthday for 15 April: Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012 US)

Elizabeth Catlett was a pioneering woman African American artist in both sculpture and graphic arts.

Elizabeth Catlett, Army Nurse, 1943, pencil on off-white paper, 42.9 x 34.9 cm   Philadelphia Museum of Art, © 2025 Catlett Mora Family Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York (PMA-9535cavg)

Between 1942 and 1946, Catlett produced numerous images of African American women's contribution to the US war effort. This portrait of a Black army nurse, at once heroic and at the same time contemplative, is emblematic of Catlett's ability to cross racial barriers with her figures, showing how African Americans were no different than their white colleagues, particularly while at war. Masterfully blending pencil and crayon, Catlett used a knife to scrape into the strokes to create highlights giving the army nurse a monumental, sculptural and, yes, iconic quality.

African American women have been nurses during wartime since the American Revolution (1775-1783), but always in segregated units. This was true during World War II. The official Army Nurses Corp of African Americans was established in 1901. 59,000 African American women served in World War II. Segregation of the corps happened during the Korea War (1950-1953).
The G.I. Bill enacted after World War II (1941–1945) allowed unprecedented numbers of African American artists to attend prominent art schools. During the Korean War, black men and women were part of the first officially integrated army units in U.S. history.

However, racism and discrimination revived during the 1950s, aided in part by forced desegregation of schools by the federal government, and in part by the Cold War and the fear of Communism. Social protest was considered “un-American.” This intolerance resulted in a decline in patronage for African American artists whose works focused on racial inequality in America.

After World War II, some black artists continued to study in Europe, choosing to escape the racism and lack of opportunity in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, however, galvanized black artists to push for a revival in exhibitions and study of African American art.
Catlett, born in Washington, DC, decided while in high school that she wanted to be an artist. Her early training was in painting at Howard University. While there she learned of the Mexican muralists’ work, painting which focused on the common people of Mexico.

Already at a young age Catlett felt that art should somehow be connected to the people. She went on to get a graduate degree from the State University of Iowa, the first to be granted by that school to an African American. This was also her first experience with white people and open racism. While in Iowa, Catlett studied under regionalist-realist Grant Wood (1891-1942), who introduced her to wood carving and printmaking.
 
In 1946, she moved to Mexico City and joined the Taller de Grafica Popular (Peoples Graphics Studio) an artists’ collective for printmaking. In Mexico, seeing more of the Mexican muralists’ socially-conscious subjects, Catlett became more convinced that her art should connect with Black people. By 1958 she was the first woman faculty member of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Mexico in Mexico City. In 1959 she became the first woman chairperson of the Sculpture Department.