1000 Museums

Elizabeth Catlett (born April 15, 1915), was an American and Mexican graphic artist and sculptor. Much of her work focuses on the experience of African-American life and political struggle during the middle of the 20th century, and her posters of well-known activists of the time, such as Angela Davis and Malcom X, were widely circulated. In the 1950s, Catlett renounced her American citizenship amid growing political tensions with the United States. After traveling to Mexico she was inspired by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and for the rest of her life split her time between Mexico and New York. Her work is held in the collections of major museums and she has been shown in more than 50 solo exhibitions. Her later career saw a shift toward sculpture and welcomed highly modern, smooth, abstracted forms with remaining interest in politically charged imagery.