Sharecropper

Elizabeth Catlett created this linocut in Mexico, where she moved in 1946 to work at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Arts Workshop). She was influenced by the spirit of activism at the workshop, which inspired her to produce art that could be used in the fight for equality and justice for African Americans. Sharecropper, like many of her other works, shows Catlett’s determination to showcase the lives of black women in the South, here drawing attention to the inequitable system of tenant farming that often resulted in a ceaseless cycle of increasing debt.

This impression was printed from the original linoleum block in 1970, many years after Catlett first produced the image and, in it, Catlett added color whereas the earlier printings were black and white. Once a block is cut, an artist can reprint it as long as they find the image it produces acceptable. In Sharecropper, the monumentalized the figure and is depicted with humanity and strength.