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ELIZABETH CATLETT at stella jones gallery

6/27/2015

 
Was Elizabeth Catlett ever afraid? Her sculpture and prints currently on exhibit at Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans (through July 30th) roar with fearless conviction and creative genius. Yet I know that as a black woman artist, Catlett faced the incredible obstacles of institutionalized racism and sexism on personal and professional levels. Her accomplished, prolific archive seems to shrug in defiance, “And?” This terrific retrospective deserves great attention, as does the story of her radical, adventurous life; I will scratch the surface in the hopes that you’ll be inspired to delve deeper. 
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Elizabeth Catlett, 1915 - 2012

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“Bread, or The Right to Eat” - Elizabeth Catlett, 1952

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“Homage To The Panthers” - Elizabeth Catlett, 1970
“Bread, or The Right to Eat” (1952, linocut) perfectly exemplifies the humanist style and socialist agenda of Catlett’s oeuvre. The content is simple: a black woman stands behind a platter of bread. Yet Catlett’s emphasis on the woman’s strong, aching hands and yearning face imbues her subject with intimacy – this isn’t an idea of hunger but an experience of it. By filling the entire frame with her subject’s body, facing forward with direct intensity, Catlett personalizes this woman’s plight, and demands we engage with it. The bread becomes secondary to the human connection we all need in order to survive. In the tradition of the political Mexican artists she was inspired by, Catlett raises her subject to a noble position: look, here’s a hungry woman, she’s worthy of our respect, she’s your family, do you recognize her? The effect is bracing and indicative of Catlett’s overall approach, from depictions of mothers and their children to the Black Panthers and beyond.

Catlett’s figurative style, minimalist and elegant, pares her gestures down to their pure essence; there’s no fuss to her surface, no noise in her space – it’s a smart technique that quiets the mind and focuses the eye. Spend enough time with the clean, unsentimental lines and repeating motifs of her print work and they begin to feel like musical scores, creating songs of a transcendental nature. Take “Homage To The Panthers” (1970, color lithograph), for example. Catlett’s crisp aesthetics suggest that the faces, fists and guns of resistance are the notes in a mighty hymnal. The resulting song that resonated in me, standing in front of “Malcolm X Speaks For Us” (1969, linocut) was emotional and uplifting, feeling like the spirituals we sing in my church: oppressed people can unite, in the uniting we fight, in the fighting there’s great beauty, in the beauty is a power much greater than we, and it’s free.

Alongside this incredible collection of prints, Catlett’s sculpture stands as some of the 20th century’s most potent work in the field. The regal grace of “Seated Mother and Child” (undated, bronze), “Triangle Woman” (undated, black marble) and “Reclining Woman” (undated, bronze/wood) beautifully marry Catlett’s fierce power as a sculptor with her recurring feminist themes. These strong women are not to be trifled with; these are the women who run the world. And in a world that continually denigrates women, particularly women of color, this message remains vital. After you’ve experienced her work at Stella Jones, I suggest a visit to Catlett’s massive bronze sculpture of Mahalia Jackson in Congo Square. If you’ve any doubts regarding her mastery of the form or her opinions regarding black female power, this sculpture will silence them.

Catlett devoted her life to telling the stories of her people – the lovers, fighters and workers of the world that the white men with the keys to the “kingdom” try to deny entry to. That exclusion has horrible consequences, a fundamental one being that people on “the outside” can get to thinking they just don’t matter. Yet there Elizabeth Catlett was – creating, celebrating, teaching, bravely refusing to  acquiesce to a system that would negate her and her 
community, insisting that there’s another, more inclusive world to occupy.  There’s a mythic heroism to artists who truly believe that art is a tool that can effect social change and that they have a responsibility to serve. Elizabeth Catlett is one of the grand warriors in the tradition whose work continues to sing, “Forge on! Do not falter! You are not alone.” 

- Elizabeth Underwood

(A note regarding Stella Jones Gallery: they’ve done a fantastic job organizing and hanging this powerful exhibition. I’m grateful for their hard work and devotion to representing artists that continue to be ignored by mainstream institutions. I cannot think of a better environment to get to know Elizabeth Catlett’s work in, or a staff better equipped to insure that her legacy lives on.)

http://stellajonesgallery.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Catlett
www.banderasnews.com/0512/art-elizabethcatlett.htm

ON RACIAL RECONCILIATION / HEALING

6/14/2015

 
When my children suffered an injury, I held them close, reassured them and dried their tears, my first concern was the healing, addressing the damage and doing whatever it takes with whatever help I could enlist to heal the wound or mend the bone and minimize the scar or future suffering that the injury might cause.

If the injury was intentionally caused by an evil doer, I would also set out with like minded people to eliminate or reduce the possibility of that evil doer harming my or any one else's child, hopefully within, but possibly outside of the law, if the law protects evil doers.

If the injury was due to something dangerous in the environment, I would do all in my ability personally and raise awareness of its danger and enlist others politically to have it removed, destroyed or modified to make it reasonably safe for children.

Failing being able to remove the danger, I would do everything I can to make sure that children knew all about it and how to avoid or armor themselves against it in the future.
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LLOYD DENNIS: Motivator, Trainer and Author.
So my interest in Racial Reconciliation / Healing is about the same: Repairing the damage, Removing evil doers power, De-constructing institutionalized racism, and Preparing children to survive and thrive regardless.

To attack these we really only need agreement that the disproportionate poverty and incarceration of black people is the wound and a willingness of people to use their personal power and influence to change laws and policies that contribute to the injury (Ineffective, underfunded schools and the war on drugs), and use their time energy and resources to help children avoid the pitfalls that maintain poverty and incarceration rates.

Political power is being driven by bigoted people who believe that black poverty and incarceration are because something is innately wrong with people with melanized skin. They are not necessarily evil but suffer from ignorance, traditional beliefs and media's focus on the outcomes rather than the causes. These folk are not very likely to participate in discussions with those of us who know better. Public media are the best hope for shedding light into their dark places.

Healing the Wound: The conversation that led Pastor Wardsworth and I to begin the Silverback Society was about repairing the damage. This takes boots on the ground and overcoming the internalized racist beliefs that black men are helpless to change their communities and that the children are “lost”. We are healing those concepts in the hearts and minds on hundreds of boys and soon to be hundreds of men.

I write to express that addressing the pain cause by racism may soothe the injured but does nothing to heal the injury, reduce the political power of bigots and racists, change how real estate values work, or prepare the next generation to deal with it while becoming people who will break the cycles put in motion generations earlier. Healers have to do something to change something.

LLOYD DENNIS, a.k.a. the "Love Doctor" is a motivator, trainer and the author of HIS WAY WORKS: A Primer For Modern Living. For more information visit: wwwlloyddennis.com or www.facebook.com/lloyd.dennis.

Originally published on June 11, 2015 by lloyddennis.com.
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    The New Orleans Loving Festival is a Multiracial Community Celebration & Film Festival that challenges racism through outreach and education. The "Loving Festival" is an initiative of Charitable Film Network.

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    JW Bottletree
    ​Rachel Dangermond
    Elizabeth Underwood

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