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I Have Always Worked Hard in America . . ., from “The Negro Woman” series

Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican
1946
Not on view
Many modern artists who sought social justice turned to printmaking as an effective means of informing the public and promoting change. Catlett studied printmaking in Mexico City, where the great public murals by artists such as Diego Rivera impressed on her art’s powerful social function. Showing three domestic workers cleaning, I Have Always Worked Hard in America is one in a set of fifteen prints entitled The Negro Woman that Catlett created as a testament to the oppression, resistance, and survival of African American women. The worker in the foreground has particularly large hands that underscore her identity as a manual laborer.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: I Have Always Worked Hard in America . . ., from “The Negro Woman” series
  • Artist: Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, Washington, D.C. 1915–2012 Cuernavaca)
  • Date: 1946
  • Medium: Linocut
  • Dimensions: 11 3/8 × 8 7/8 in. (28.9 × 22.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
  • Object Number: 1999.529.31
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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. . . In Other Folks’ Homes, from “The Negro Woman” series, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
. . . In Other Folks’ Homes, from “The Negro Woman” series
Elizabeth Catlett
1946
. . . In the Fields, from “The Negro Woman” series , Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
. . . In the Fields, from “The Negro Woman” series 
Elizabeth Catlett
1947
My Reward Has Been Bars Between Me and the Rest of the Land, from “The Negro Woman” series, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
My Reward Has Been Bars Between Me and the Rest of the Land, from “The Negro Woman” series
Elizabeth Catlett
1947
My Role Has Been Important in the Struggle to Organize the Unorganized, from “The Negro Woman” series, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
My Role Has Been Important in the Struggle to Organize the Unorganized, from “The Negro Woman” series
Elizabeth Catlett
1947
In Sojourner Truth I Fought for the Rights of Women as well as Negroes, from “The Negro Woman” series, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
In Sojourner Truth I Fought for the Rights of Women as well as Negroes, from “The Negro Woman” series
Elizabeth Catlett
1947

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