Artwork
Survivor
Artist
Elizabeth Catlett
(American, 1915 - 2012)
DepartmentContemporary Art
Date1983
MediumLinocut on paper
Dimensionsimage: 9 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (23.5 x 18.7 cm)
Credit LineSan Antonio Museum of Art, in memory of TSGT Wilbor Watson, USAF, Retired and Mrs. Lula Bell Watson
Object number2004.4
Copyright© Estate of Elizabeth Catlett / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
DescriptionPortrait of a woman in black and white represented from the waist up wearing an apron and headwrap. She looks off to the side, but her torso faces forward, and her hands grasp a stick. The background is largely dark with some white lines in an abstract design in the upper portion of the image.Label TextI 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….
—Elizabeth Catlett
A striking image, Survivor is based on a photograph of a formerly enslaved woman from Alabama captured by photographer Dorothea Lange while she was documenting the rural South during the Great Depression. With bold, hard-edged lines and sharp contrasts of black and white, Catlett creates a heroic portrait of an anonymous woman that evokes strength and dignity in face of hardships still suffered by People of Color and those in poverty.
(Lana Meador, 2019)InscriptionsTitled and numbered under image, lower left: Survivor 960/1000SignedSigned and dated in pencil, lower right: E. Catlett '83Not on view
Collections
Danny Lyon
1963, printed 2015
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
