While perusing prints online and in books looking for inspiration for today’s print, I was struck by a contrast between two pictures of maternal figures male children by two different African-American artists. I’m sharing this pair of prints today.
Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) was a visual artist best known for her prints, although later in life she turned to sculpture as well. She was married first to another African-American print artist (Charles White, whose work I will feature one of these days). She and her husband were both awarded a prestigious fellowship to study in Mexico, where she remained after divorcing White, because she found American art trending towards the abstract, whereas her avowed reason for creating was to transmit social messages. Most of her work was devoted to describing and commenting on the Black American experience, especially the experience of Black women. She had a distinguished career as an artist in Mexico, becoming the first female art professor at a national art school.
I have shown prints by John Biggers twice before, first a charming print of a young girl, and then a print of two Black men learning to read. Notably, he was awarded a UNESCO fellowship in the 1950s to visit Africa to learn about African culture and artistic tradition. He was profoundly influenced by this first trip (to Ghana) and several subsequent trips to Africa. He was impressed by the matriarchal nature of Ghanaian society, finding both similarities and differences to the matriarchal character of African-American culture.
On his first trip to Ghana, Biggers drew a picture of his host, art professor Patrick Hulede, together with Hulede’s mother.
Mother and Son (1959, crayon on paper)
Catlett, in 1979, created a print of a maternal figure and a child. It’s not clear if this is mother or grandmother, but the style of the hat suggests an older woman to me..
Two Generations (1979, lithograph)
Two pictures, both of a maternal figure and child: not strictly comparable, as one is adult mother and son, the other likely grandmother and young grandson, and yet I was struck by a comparison and contrast. When I look at the Catlett print, I see on the grandmother’s face weariness, uncertainty and perhaps fear in both her and the child, and what I might characterize as a contracted tone.
In contrast, what I feel in the Biggers drawing is openness, pride, and an expansive tone. Perhaps I’m reasoning backwards from my knowledge of history, but this fits with the ongoing oppression of American Blacks versus (in some parts of Africa which avoided colonial rule) a long-standing tradition of dignified self-government. Am I alone in this? I’d love to hear your reactions.