Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico (The Jacob Lawrence Series on American Artists)

Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico (The Jacob Lawrence Series on American Artists) by Herzog, Melanie Anne. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780295979403.

This illustrated and informative monograph is the first to document the full range of Catletts life and work. In addition to thoroughly researching primary source materials and to critiquing individual art works with sensitivity and erudition, the author has conducted numerous interviews with Catlett and has analyzed with clarity the political context of her work and her diverse sympathies and allegiances. Herzog examines key artistic influences and shows how Catlett transformed an extraordinary stylistic vocabulary into a socially charged statement. In tracing Catletts long and continuing career as a graphic artist and sculptor in Mexico, Herzog explores an important period in Catletts life between the 1950s and the 1970s about which almost nothing is known in the United States. She examines the "Mexicanness" in Catletts work in its fluent relationship to the underlying and constant sense of African American identity she brought with her to Mexico. Herzogs solidly grounded interpretation offers a new way to understand Catletts work and reveals this artist as a fascinating and pivotal intercultural figure whose powerful art manifests her firm belief that the visual arts can play a role in the construction of a meaningful identity, both transnational and ethnically grounded.