Printmaking Artist
Unit 3 - Elizabeth Catlett - Relief Printing
Learning target
I can learn about our printmaking artist, Elizabeth Catlett
So that I can complete my sketchbook assignment and understand what I can do with the new medium (linoleum).
I will know I have when I am able to answer questions about Catlett and have some ideas for my future project.
Elizabeth Catlett Biography
(Sorry that she is not a currently living artist BUT she is too cool to pass up)
Catlett was born in 1915
Her grandparents raised her with the stories of their experience as slaves. This would go on to inform her work
She knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist, although there weren’t many Black women artists for her to be inspired by.
She went to college where she studied art and graduated in 1935
She taught art for several years and then worked as an artist in the New York before moving to Mexico with her family
She died in 2012 at age 97
Themes and style
Catlett insisted on following the advice “take your subject as what you know best”
And so as an African American woman, that is who she decidedly made art for.
She was later inspired by the culture and her surroundings when she moved to Mexico.
The theme she mainly worked with were stories and communicating the lived experiences of her grandparents had been slaves.
Catlett worked mainly in sculpture but her printmaking style was relief printing with linoleum which we will be working with in class.
examples
examples
Celebrating People we care about
Catlett’s linocuts were all about celebrating the strength of the people she cared about and communicating an experience to the viewer.
We are going to think about the people that we care about and how we already do celebrate them and how we can do that more.
For example, I care about my brother. He goes to UW Madison, he likes waterskiing and video games. I celebrate could celebrate him by letting him know I am proud of him.
Think about it…..
I would like you to think about a few people you care about.
With those people, what reminds you of them?
How do you show them you care about them? How could you?
How could you reflect this in artwork?