The Art Institute of Chicago has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies," surveying 75 years of the artist's work. Catlett, who died in 2012, was a Black American artist who spent six decades in Mexico, creating prints and sculptures that depicted Black women and addressed social injustice. The show includes iconic works like "Target Practice" and "Sharecropper," and runs through January 4, 2026.
This exhibition matters because it corrects a long-standing erasure: Catlett herself said in 2003 that she had been "invisible in the art world." Despite being a master of multiple media—from social realist prints to abstract wood and stone sculptures—she faced racism, sexism, and Cold War persecution, including being declared an "undesirable alien" by the U.S. government. The show, curated by Sarah Kelly Oehler, reclaims Catlett's legacy as both a revolutionary artist and a technical virtuoso, placing her firmly in the canon of American and Mexican art history.