{"data":{"id":"4456","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4456,"topgoose_id":2531,"tms_id":4456,"display_name":"Elizabeth Catlett","sort_name":"Catlett Elizabeth","display_date":"1915–2012","begin_date":"1915","end_date":"2012","biography":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough Elizabeth Catlett was the granddaughter of former slaves and grew up during a time of severe racial and gender discrimination in the United States, the prints and sculptures she produced during her nearly seven-decade career signal her belief in the dignity of humankind. Catlett credited \u003ca href=\"/artists/1447\"\u003eGrant Wood\u003c/a\u003e, with whom she studied painting at the University of Iowa, with encouraging her to focus on the subjects she knew most about. She took his advice to heart and began making depictions of African American women, often in the context of familial relationships or in settings suggesting larger social and political struggles.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter becoming the first woman to receive an MFA from the University of Iowa, in 1940, Catlett studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago. She became a vital figure of the Harlem Renaissance during its waning years in the early 1940s, and in 1946 she received a prestigious grant to travel to Mexico; she established permanent residency there the following year, and eventually became a Mexican citizen. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/44134\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHead\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, one of her first terracotta sculptures,\nwas made there using an ancient coil\ntechnique native to the region. The close-\ncropped hair and slightly abstracted features\nseen in this serene and stately portrait\ntranscend the particular racial identity of\nCatlett’s subject, suggesting a universal\nportrayal of the venerable attributes of all\nwomen. As Catlett once explained, “I thought\nof sculpture as something more durable\nand timeless [than printmaking], and I\nfelt that it had to be more general in the idea\nthat I was trying to express.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500011840","wikidata_id":"Q290331","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:26:42.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-30T07:03:47.872-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4456/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4456/exhibitions"}}}}