The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of Elizabeth Catlett, the groundbreaking Black revolutionary artist whose work spanned 75 years and consistently delivered powerful sociopolitical messages. The exhibition "Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies" opened Saturday and will run through January 4, 2026, featuring 110 works that showcase nearly her entire career from the 1930s to 2011.
For Catlett, art was never created merely for aesthetic purposes. From her graduate studies at the University of Iowa under regionalist Grant Wood in the 1930s to her final exhibitions in 2011, she consistently produced paintings, sculptures, and original prints with emphatic and often pointed sociopolitical messages. "For I have been, and am currently, and always hope to be a Black revolutionary artist and all that it implies," the activist-artist declared in a 1970 speech during a milestone Black art conference at Northwestern University in Evanston.
The exhibition is free with regular museum admission and can be viewed at the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 111 South Michigan Avenue. Visitors can contact the museum at (312) 443-3600 or visit artic.edu for more information. The show seeks to bring broader understanding of the Washington, D.C. native, who has gained increased attention since her death in 2012 at age 96, establishing her as what the museum considers a defining artist of the 20th century.
Catlett's life spanned some of America's most turbulent periods. She graduated from high school during the Great Depression and lived through the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama, actively engaging with the events around her throughout her lifetime. "Everything she did was about being an active participant in fighting for social justice, fighting for equal rights, fighting for people's right to have art, even," said Sarah Kelly Oehler, the Art Institute's curator for Arts of the Americas.
Oehler emphasized that Catlett's entire mandate as an artist was to provide art to people who wouldn't necessarily have access to it. The artist became highly influential in Mexico, where she moved in 1947 and was later exiled after the U.S. government revoked her citizenship because of her political affiliations. She became an integral member of Mexico's renowned printmaking collective, Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphic Workshop).
Equally important, according to Oehler, Catlett was one of the first artists to focus on a subject that was largely absent from paintings and sculptures at that point – the importance of Black women in American society. "Representations of Black women are not sympathetic for much of the 20th century," the curator explained, "and she really redefines that through her art." Beyond her subject matter, Catlett was revolutionary in terms of the diverse styles and techniques she incorporated into her work, drawing from African and pre-Columbian art to pop art.
"This is an artist who was incredibly curious, rich and constantly pushing at what she could do in her craft as an artist," Oehler noted. In an attempt to give Catlett full credit where it's due, this marks the first Catlett retrospective in the United States that doesn't focus on just one medium but examines all aspects of her creative output. The exhibition includes 69 original prints, 25 sculptures in materials such as stone, bronze, wood and terracotta, 12 works on paper, and four examples of her little-known paintings.
Chicago proves to be a fitting location for this exhibition, as Catlett spent six months in the city in 1941 during the flowering of Chicago's Black Renaissance. Although her time in Chicago was brief, she developed enduring friendships with artists like Margaret Burroughs, and her first husband was Charles White, a Chicagoan who was featured in an Art Institute retrospective in 2018. "This really became her intellectual and artistic community for several years," Oehler said, "and I think [it] helped shape the trajectory of her entire life."
Among the exhibition's highlights, curator Oehler cited several significant works. "Angela Libre" (1972), a color lithograph on silver foil measuring 22 by 25½ inches, draws on the serial pop style of Andy Warhol and incorporates six repeated portraits of political activist Angela Davis. "It has this wonderful reflective, colorful appearance that I find really compelling, personally," Oehler remarked.
Another featured piece is "Head (Head of a Man)" (circa 1941), a limestone sculpture that represents one of Catlett's earlier works. The Art Institute acquired this early sculpture in 2022 to complement its holdings of Catlett's works on paper, including what Oehler described as "an incredibly rich color version" of the artist's most famous print in the United States, "Sharecropper" (1952, printed 1970).
The exhibition also showcases "Untitled (Composition for a Peace Poster)" (circa 1950), a linocut measuring 50½ by 35 inches. Created in collaboration with Alberto Beltrán, this unusually large-scale print on two sheets of cream wove paper depicts a woman shielding her child as a giant hand overhead holds back an onslaught of bayonets, powerfully conveying themes of protection and resistance.
"What I love about this show is that there is something that will appeal to every art lover, regardless of what kind of art you are interested in," Oehler concluded. "There is so much interesting subject matter and different approaches to art." The comprehensive retrospective offers visitors an unprecedented opportunity to experience the full scope of Catlett's revolutionary artistic vision and her unwavering commitment to social justice through art.
