Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Catlett, who would have turned 100 today! Catlett is an inspiration to many in the Justseeds crew for her linocut print work, and her participation in the Taller de Gráfica Popular of Mexico City. Formed in 1937, the Taller was a printmaking group whose work covered subjects like anti-facism, literacy, and organized labor. She was an amazing sculptor, and although not well known by the general public, her work can be found in major art museums around the U.S. I communed with her sculpture “Stargazer” many times at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Catlett’s work and life will be a source of inspiration to political graphic producers for years to come: “Spare, reserved, angry, radical beautiful…Genius in her ideas and in their execution…there’s a motion and fluidity…she doesn’t fuck around.” (Nosedive #9, 1999) I’m grateful for her incredible contributions to the world. From 1946 up until her passing in 2012, Catlett lived and worked in Cuernavaca, Mexico. This illustration from Firebrands: Portraits From the Americas was made by Kristine Virsis.