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Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with… at the Bronx Museum of Arts
By andrea kirsh
March 11, 2011 · 6 Comments
Stargazers; Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists, on view at the Bronx Museum of Art through May 29, 2011, exhibits forty of Catlett’s sculptures and graphic works juxtaposed with work by two younger generations of artists who share her concerns with the roles and images of African-Americans, particularly African-American women, and with broader questions of social (in)justice. Catlett is a major figure whose work is referenced more often than seen, and unless you caught the retrospective that toured in 1998 you’ve not likely seen this much of her work. She is also a living connection with seventy years’ of American and Mexican art history, and remarkably, is still active at ninety-seven.
Elizabeth Catlett 'Malcolm X Speaks for Us' (1969) linocut
Catlett’s work has been overwhelmingly figural, although she acknowledges that her sculpture has been more concerned with purely formal issues than her prints, and she has occasionally ventured into sculptural abstraction. She looked to West African art for its formal manipulation of the human figure, and like Wifredo Lam, claimed African art as part of her patrimony at a time when European and American artists were appropriating African forms as a romantic primitivism. Her prints show tremendous virtuosity and graphic punch. While her best known prints are woodcuts in the manner of 1930s social realism, several prints from the early seventies were unexpectedly powerful, incorporating the style of Pop art and 60s posters, and mixing hand-drawn images with those taken from photographs of figures of Black resistance, such as Angela Davis and Malxolm X.
Elizabeth Catlett 'Madonna' (1982) lithograph
Catlett has worked to her own standards, even as the art world turned its back on her frankly-populist stance. She continues to produce work with a message of respect and affirmation for the lives of the working class and of African Americans marginalized by American culture. She worked for the Federal Art Project of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and was among a group of artists involved in left-wing politics who created art for social change. In 1946 she moved to Mexico where she was involved with the Taller de Gráfica Popular, which produced popular prints in the service of social and political goals; she married a Mexican artist and remained there.
Kalup Linzy still from 'Conversations wit de Churen' III:' Da Young and Da Mess' video (2005)
Wardell Milan 'One could still dream ...' (2008) digital c-print
Some of the younger artists have acknowledged Catlett’s influence, others were chosen by the curator, Isolde Brielmeier, presumably because of shared social concerns. What’s most striking, however, is the distance most of them take from Catlett’s populism. Their work is sophisticated, knowing, multi-leveled, sometimes camp and largely ironic. It’s hard to know what an audience outside the art world would make of it: Hank Willis Thomas’ golden pendant of a bound slave as a take-off on urban street jewelry; Kalup Linzy’s send-up of soap operas in intentionally-unconvincing drag; Mickalene Thomas’ sequined and seductive femmes; Sam Durant’s abject, broken mannekin, Female Indian (nude); Wardell Milan’s trash pile of commercial detritus in the midst of urban decay, with the caustic title, One could still dream to devise an optimistic antidote against the defeatist and cynical claims.
Mickalene Thomas 'Portrait of Qusuquzah' acrylic and enamel on panel
Sam Durant 'Female Indian (nude)' (2008) c-print
A few of the younger artists do convey some of Catlett’s un-embarrassed celebration of the dignity of ordinary people: Robert Pruitt’s pastel drawing of a young girl in a tee-shirt that reads “Negro es bello”; Carrie Mae Weems’ mother and daughter negotiating a homework assignment (although as part of a series, the photographs were accompanied by texts that complicated the domestic scene); Xaviera Simmons’ family portraits; and Patricia Coffee’s hauntingly-beautiful, improbably black girl in a pink dress. Coffee, in fact, captures some of the beauty of black skin that Catlett renders so remarkably in her lithographs.
Carrie Mae Weems from the 'Kitchen Table Series': 'Homework' (199o) gelatin silver print
The exhibition comes off as a meditation on Catlett’s affirmative imagery, intended to effect real change (if only at the personal level), in contrast to art that acknowledges the inherent politics of all imagery but has little faith in its efficacy at street level. It raises interesting questions about art which professes an interest in progressive politics, yet distrusts imagery targeted at the masses; an art that speaks in a visual language far from the vernacular. And to whom?
Patricia Coffee 'Far from Home' (2008) c-print
On April 29 at 6pm Catlett will participate in a panel discussion with Sanford Biggers, Renee Cox and Xaviera Simmons.
Tags: bronx museum of art, carrie mae weems, elizabeth catlett, hank willis thomas, isolde brielmaier, kalup linzy, mickalene thomas, patricia coffie, renee cox, robert pruitt, sam durant, sanford biggers, taller de gráfica popular, wardell milan, works progress administration, wpa, xaviera simmons
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it’s good to see you doing a review of this show. however, i wouldn’t worry about “what an audience outside the art world will make of” the work you seem to consider inaccessible. the art world is far far broader in ny than the phila art world. artists like mickalene thomas & kalup linzy are known in ny beyond art insiders. hank willis thomas just had a large series of works up at the brooklyn museum which is frequented by people of all walks of life who never attend museums in phila because they feel unwelcomed. i think also mickalene’s & kalup’s work speaks of “the dignity of ordinary people” as much as robert pruitt’s or carrie mae weems’s. finally , i’m not sure which masses or vernacular you’re speaking of,whether you are , in effect, saying black artists should do more service oriented art as was maybe more pressing in catlett’s time, but i think the high school classes ,etc. from the bronx that attend this show will “get” mickalene & kalup’s work even more than catlett’s because it is more relevent to their lives & time.
I think this is an important exhibition, but it certainly made me think about potential audiences and about class (as well as other topics such as artists’ education, an expanding art world, and the implications of mass media). I’m not suggesting to any artists what they should be doing; that’s their business. But my business is to try to understand how the work functions. It is also true, as I’ve noted with dismay since I moved here, that Philadelphia art audiences are almost entirely segregated; yet I suspect that they are all predominantly educated beyond the working class. Studies indicate this is true across the U.S. and in Europe, and I suspect for NYC as well. While funds have been available over the last two decades to attract “underserved” audiences to museums, I have not heard of any sustained successes. No one has been willing to talk about this. Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program clearly directs its community projects at a non-art audience, and there is no overlap between what they commission and what is shown and discussed in art venues.
i agree entirely other than adding that i think brooklyn museum is achieving the goal of a broader audience (as well as community based museums -el museo del barrio, studio museum, asia society,etc.) but they are pretty much alone in this among mainstream museums. here, pafa is trying but pma still sticks works by blacks (& jews) next to the basement toilet.
yes, the phila art world (both galleries & museums) is almost totally segregated, which everyone here is either oblivious to or just doesn’t care about. i , too, was shocked to see this situation, coming from ny. clearly , this has to do with the general (if less blatantly obvious) segregation of phila & the city’s racist history & the lack of an educational system (& the city’s well known anti intellectualism) as well as the cliqueish ness of the local art scene. i don’t know what the answer is (i just tell young people to move to ny before it’s too late for them) & i think the lack of money in phila now & of corporate sponsorship (a big plus in bringing people together at ny museums & concerts) makes things even more bleak.
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Elizabeth Cattlet is a Black artist living and working in NY and Mexico. She’s been living there for the past 60 years and yet there is no reference whatsoever about that country’s influence on Ms. Cattlet’s work in the Bronx Museum show, “Stargazers,” which consists of mostly Black contemporary artists whose work has very little to do with Ms.Cattlet’s work in the first place.
Some of the strongest examples of artists who’ve been influenced by Eizabeth Cattlet are Kerry James Marshall, Carrie Mae Weems and Robert Pruitt, except that Robert Pruitt’s commissioned t-shirt, “negro es bonito,” was a weak interpretation at Black is Beautiful because it was designed as a product. Kerry James Marshall is a mid career artist whose work has many direct links to Cattlet aesthetically, but more so in content of positive examples of Black people and community through painting. Carrie Mae Weems’ work has also had the same impact on society in that it provokes one to reconsider the Black body not as popular culture entertainment but as a human being. Then there are the weak links ; one has to question why they were even considered: Shinique Smith whose work investigates the aesthetics of graffiti art but without any criticality; Kalup Linzy whose work investigates cross dressing by promoting stereotypes of Black gay men; Xaviera Simmons whose entire body of work is a reflection of victimization rather than self determination; Wangechi Mutu whose paintings, drawings are so aesthetically stimulating because they lack any substance or serious content; Mickalene Thomas whose work is really about female fetish for other females. It seems like everyone was selected from the Studio Museum in Harlem’s last 5 years of exhibitions while excluding anyone from New Jersey or any other State or City. It is sad to see such a great opportunity lost to self indulgence and grandstanding by many of these young artists who know nothing of Elizabeth Cattlet’s work or her sacrifice.
sand makes some good points regarding catlett & mexico & the new york centricity of the selection of artists. however the show , as i understand it, was to include artists who share subject matter with catlett not just those who were influenced by her & a pretty high percentage of contemporary black artists are based in ny (granted, also, these are the people the curator knows…) for obvious reasons.
the critique of many of the young artists in the show (who , by the way, do know catlett’s work – they are not ignorant) is pretty lame. kalup linzy does not “promote” stereotypes of gay black men. mickalene thomas’s work is not about “female fetish for other females.” (i would respond to this more if i had a clue to what this “fetish” business is.) & while i’m glad sand finds wangechi mutu’s work “aesthetically stimulating ” the idea that it has no serious content or substance is just plain silly.