Elizabeth Catlett, In Sojourner Truth I fought for the rights of women as well as Negroes, 1947, printed 1989 

Narrator: This work by Elizabeth Catlett is a vertical linoleum cut print on paper depicting nineteenth century formerly enslaved African-American abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth at the center. It is titled In Sojourner Truth I fought for the rights of women as well as Negroes. The sheet of paper is a little over 10 inches by 7 inches, while the image is set about an inch in. 

Truth commands the frame with a resolute expression. She faces the viewer with her right hand raised, elbow bent, finger pointing upward to the sky, almost arriving at the edge of the composition. Her left palm is planted firmly down on a podium with her fingers holding the front edge. Her hands define a diagonal tension in the composition like the graphic figures found on playing cards. Wood grain runs across the sides of the podium under her fingers while the top is completely white. A Bible lies open with a bookmark resting flat on the page. A stark white cross decorates the surface of the black bookmark. Two dense columns of solid lines suggest text on each page. The edges of the print are filled with a solid black border. The background is composed of short dense horizontal lines which reveal the direction cut into the linoleum to make the print. As they run toward the center of the image to frame Truth’s body, the lines end, creating a halo of white negative space around Truth’s body, as if a light was illuminating her from behind. 

Truth’s head is wrapped in white cloth with a tied edge poking out from behind her head, seen on the side of her face. She looks straight ahead with lips slightly pursed. The horizontal lines that define Truth’s skin are closer together, swaying in more organic shapes which showcase the linoleum cut style. Gaps emerge at her forehead and cheeks suggesting light catching her bone structure. A white scarf winds around her neck to meet in a V-shape tucked into her dress. The dress is made of vertical lines that look like stripes or pleats that pass under a thick waistband. The vertical lines of her dress contrast strongly with the horizontal lines of the background, pulling Truth’s silhouette into the foreground. The title, artist signature, and date are written in graphite below the print along with the edition which is 14/20. This work is the sixth in a series of fifteen linoleum cuts made by Catlett to celebrate Black women’s labor. It is displayed in a row of four prints from this series.