Malcolm X speaks for us

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Malcolm X speaks for us

Artist Elizabeth Catlett (American, 1915-2012)

Date1969-2004

DimensionsH: 41 in. (104.1 cm); W: 32 in. (81.3 cm)

MediumColor linoleum cut

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Dr. Elizabeth Catlett

Object number

2006.156

Not on View

Label TextOne of the most significant artists of the past century, Elizabeth Catlett has influenced generations of artists and activists. While in graduate school at the University of Iowa, her mentor Grant Wood (painter of American Gothic, 1930) encouraged students to make art about what they knew best. This motivated Catlett to give voice to and highlight the lives of African Americans, particularly Black women, and those economically disenfranchised. As Catlett expressed, “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.” After moving to Mexico in 1946, in part as an escape from Jim Crow laws in the U.S., she was further influenced by the cultural activism of artists Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and others. Her socially engaged and politically charged artworks became important symbols for the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in the U.S. in the 1960s. Malcolm X Speaks for Us, made after his assassination in 1965, expresses how Malcolm X inspired pride among Black communities. By including the faces of numerous Black women alongside his portrait, Catlett emphasizes the critical contributions of Black women in movements for racial justice.Published Referencescf. Herzog, Melanie Anne, Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2005, p. 137 fig. 78 (repr.).

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, Speaking Out: The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, June 15 - September 23, 2007.

Toledo Museum of Art, People Get Ready: 50 Years of Civil Rights, Jun. 27-Sept. 21, 2014.