140
●
ELIZABETH CATLETT (1915 - 2012)
Singing Head
.
Carved tropical wood, with painted details, circa 1977.Approximately 419x203x190 mm; 16
1
/
4
x8x7
1
/
2
inches. Initialed “EC” at the lower edge.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private California collection.The owner met Elizabeth
Catlett in Mexico City in 1975, and commissioned this work from the artist shortly thereafter.The
next year the artist moved to Cuernavaca.
This large, modern head is an exquisite example of Elizabeth Catlett’s mid-career sculpture in carved
wood.The singing head or
cabeza cantando
is an important theme to Catlett, and indicates the influence
of both Mexican and African-American traditions in her work.
Singing Head
is an embodiment of
self-expression and identity - it represents the many cultures and influences found in the artist’s work.
Several of Catlett’s sculptures have an open, expressive or singing mouth. She made an earlier version
in bronze and marble in 1968 of a Mexican woman. There are also earlier wood versions with
painted details,
The BlackWoman Speaks
, 1970, in the collection of David C. Drisklell, and her “more
abstract, Africanized
Singing Head
in mahogany in 1975”, as described by Melanie Herzog. Catlett
made other smaller versions of this type of head in both orange onyx, 1979, in the collection of the
James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, and black marble, 1980, in the collection
of the National Museum of American Art,Washington, DC. In addition, Catlett made a much smaller
version in cast bronze (see lot 139). Herzog p. 154.
[120,000/180,000]
