Elizabeth Catlett’s artistic career spanned an impressive six decades, and is characterized by a rich body of sculptures and prints that illustrate her identity as a woman of African American and Mexican descent. Many of the themes in Catlett’s body of work center around her experiences as a woman of color. Executed in 1981, Woman Resting is typical of Catlett’s commitment to exploring the female form and female-centric issues within her oeuvre.
“I am inspired by Black people and Mexican people, my two peoples”
Born in Washington, D.C. in 1915, Catlett is the granddaughter of formerly enslaved people. She received her artistic training from Howard University beginning in 1931, after Carnegie Mellon rescinded her acceptance due to her race. Such experiences directly informed Catlett’s approach to delving into racial injustice within her art. Following her undergraduate studies, Catlett attended University of Iowa for her Master in Replica Handbags s, where she became their first recipient of a MFA in sculpture. Grant Wood, the nation’s leading American Regionalist painter and her instructor at the t.mes , was instrumental in encouraging Catlett to produce art about “something you know the most about” (Elizabeth Catlett interview with Clifton Johnson, 5 January 1984). Through this advice, Catlett arrived at a body of work that illustrates the experiences of women, Black individuals, and the working class.
“I have always wanted my art to service my people – to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential”
Catlett visited Mexico City in 1946 on a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation. This prompted her to establish permanent residence shortly thereafter, teaching at the National School of Replica Handbags s in Mexico City from 1958 until 1976. Similar to works she executed in the United States, Catlett’s prints and sculptures also engage with racial inequity in Mexico and her experiences as a Black woman living in Mexico.
Rendered in polychromed mahogany, Woman Resting possesses the hallmark fluidity that distinguishes Catlett’s sculptural works. The figure’s arms effortlessly blend into the surrounding legs and hand, creating a softness to the woman’s form. The upright stature of Woman Resting exudes a sense of relaxed confidence. Many of Catlett’s female sculptures concentrate on themes of maternity and the experience of motherhood; however, the present example exemplifies the solo experience of this particular woman.
Woman Resting was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in 2014 and recently spent more than two decades in the same private hands.