Talks & Conversations

The Sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett

In-person
A sculpture of a woman holding a small child in her lap.

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Elizabeth Catlett, Mother and Child, 1956, terracotta, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Women's Fund, and Dr. Alfred Gold (by exchange), 219.2011

Elizabeth Catlett blended artistic innovation and social consciousness in her sculptures. She explored deep human empathy with a modernist style. Senior lecturer David Gariff surveys key themes from 50 years of Catlett's sculpture.

Sign-language interpreters and guides for visitors who are blind or have low vision are available for programs. Please call (202) 842-6905 or email [email protected] three weeks in advance for an appointment. Learn more about accessibility.

This talk will be given both on June 6 and June 30, 2025.

You may also like

Talks & Conversations:  Storytime: I Like Myself!

-

Talks & Conversations:  The Art of Looking: María Berrío, A Sunburst Restrained

-
Registration Required
We look out onto a sweeping, panoramic view with trees, their leaves fiery orange and red, framing a view of a distant body of water under a sun-streaked sky in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and is lined with hazy mountains and clouds in the deep distance. Close examination slowly reveals minuscule birds tucked into the crimson-red, golden yellow, and deep, sage-green leaves of the trees to either side of the painting. Closest to us, vine-covered, fallen tree trunks and mossy gray boulders line the bottom edge of the canvas. Beyond a trickling waterfall and small pool near the lower left corner, and tiny within the scale of the landscape, a group of three men and their dogs sit and recline around a blanket and a picnic basket, their rifles leaning against a tree nearby. The land sweeps down to a grassy meadow crossed by a meandering stream that winds into the distance, at the center of the painting. Touches of white and gray represent a flock of grazing sheep in the meadow. A low wooden bridge spans the stream to our right, and a few cows drink from the riverbank. Smoke rises from chimneys in a town lining the riverbank and shoreline beyond, and tiny white sails and steamboats dot the waterway. Light pours onto the scene with rays like a starburst from behind a lavender-gray cloud covering the sun, low in the sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the flat top of a rock at the lower center of the landscape with his name, the title of the painting, and date: “Autumn – on the Hudson River, J.F Cropsey, London 1860.”

Talks & Conversations:  Finding Awe: Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Autumn—On the Hudson River 

-
Registration Required