ELIZABETH CATLETT (1915 - 2012) WITH DAVID MORA CATLETT (1951 - ) El Abrazo.
Guatemalan red mahogany, mounted on a wood base, 2010-17. Approximately 900x420x280 mm; 35 1/2x17 1/2x11 inches (not including the base). Inscribed with both artists' initials, at the rear edge.
Provenance: collection of the artist; David Mora Catlett, Cuernavaca, Mexico.The artist's son David Mora Catlett is an accomplished sculptor - he worked closely with his mother as her apprentice and assistant in their Cuernavaca studio for decades. He worked in collaboration with his mother on El Abrazo . In a signed statement, he described their process: "David Mora Catlett did all the roughing, some carving and all finishing by polishing of the piece. Elizabeth Catlett created the design and completed most of the detailed and skillful carving". Mora Catlett finished the work in 2017 after his mother's passing in 2012 at the age of 96.
El Abrazo (The Embrace) is the last wooden sculpture by the artist. The high polish, rich grain and cut of this beautiful mahogany sculpture all accentuate the form of this abstracted pair. The flared massive base directs the viewer upward to the faces, while their direct gaze invites the viewer to share the emotions and humanity of their tight embrace. Catlett described in 1989 how her aim was to trigger an emotional response: "I still work figuratively, trying to express emotion through abstract form, color, line, and space. I attempt to reach out to ordinary people who have little or no experience or understanding of art principles, and extend to them what I may feel about a subject, whether anger, indignation, strength, beauty, sacrifice, understanding--whatever, but always something. Even in more abstract sculpture I attempt to get a reaction, possibly by a strong upward gesture, or a close tight feeling between two figures."
With this last sculpture, Catlett reinterprets her 1978 El Abrazo, carved mahogany with painted details - a 26 inch high work that was in the collection of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, Los Angeles (offered at auction at Swann Galleries on October 4, 2007). Catlett also made several versions of this subject with an embracing couple kissing, both in mahogany and black marble. Herzog p. 117 and 169.
