<I>I have given the world my songs</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1946-1947; printed 1989
name: label: Created by
content: Elizabeth Catlett, Mexican and American, 1915 - 2012
notes: label: Caption
content: I wanted to show the history and strength of all kinds of Black women. Working women, country women, great women in the history of the United States. — Elizabeth Catlett
label: Caption
content: Elizabeth Catlett was a versatile sculptor and printmaker committed to making art that promoted women, family, community, and equality. In 1946, she received a Julius Rosenwald Foundation Grant to travel and study in Mexico City. There, she worked with the Taller de Gráphica Popular (People’s Graphic Arts Workshop), a printmaking collective primarily dedicated to the production of sociopolitical art. During her stay, she completed The Negro Woman. This narrative series of prints embodies a first-person perspective of Black women, imparting a sense of intimacy and resilience as the viewer navigates a variety of images relating to resilience, heroism, and the ongoing struggle for racial justice.
label: Description
content: This color linocut depicts a woman playing a guitar. Wearing a knee-length dress, she is seated on a square four legged stool. Her sleeves are rolled up to her elbows and she rests the guitar on her lap. In the background is a small vignette, done in bright blue tones that depict a man in a hood attacking another man. Below them is a large burning cross. There is a handwritten title below the image in pencil. It is signed by the artist on the bottom right. The back is blank.
place: label: Place made
content: Mexico City, Mexico, Latin America, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Identity
label: Topic
content: Music
label: Topic
content: Musicians
label: Topic
content: Resistance
label: Topic
content: Violence
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Portfolio/Series
content: The Black Woman (formerly the Negro Woman)
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Winifred Hervey
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2017.21.5
objectType: label: Type
content: linocuts
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © 2020 Catlett Mora Family Trust/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink and graphite on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image with title): 8 1/8 × 5 1/16 in. (20.6 × 12.8 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 7 1/2 × 5 1/16 in. (19 × 12.8 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (sheet): 13 1/2 × 9 9/16 in. (34.3 × 24.3 cm)