{"type":"artobject","objectid":124071,"objectnumber":"2016-10","sortnumber":"2016   10","displaytitle":"Friends","department":"Prints and Drawings","classification":"Paintings","datebegin":1944,"dateend":1944,"datecomputed":1944,"daterange":"A.D. 1900-1945","displaydate":"1944","medium":"Egg tempera and blue colored pencil on Masonite board","dimensions":"28.6 × 23.5 cm (11 1/4 × 9 1/4 in.)\r\nframe: 46.4 × 41.3 × 3.5 cm (18 1/4 × 16 1/4 × 1 3/8 in.)","dimensionsproposed":"","creditline":"Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund","markings":null,"inscribed":null,"signed":"Signed lower left in blue: Catlett","catalograisonne":null,"creditlinerepro":"Art © Catlett Mora Family Trust/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY","restrictions":"restricted","nowebuse":"False","secondaryobjectnumber":"","campuscollections":"false","on_view":true,"accessionyear":"2016-01-01","newaccession":0,"titles":[{"title":"Friends","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"makers":[{"id":1358,"displayname":"Elizabeth Catlett","displaydate":"1915–2012; born Washington, D.C., died Cuernavaca, Mexico","datebegin":1915,"dateend":2012,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Elizabeth Catlett, 1915–2012; born Washington, D.C., died Cuernavaca, Mexico","displayorder":1}],"depicted":[],"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"Catlett made Friends when she and her first husband and fellow artist Charles White taught at the progressive George Washington Carver School in Harlem. For Catlett, the experience opened her eyes to the limitations of her own middle-class background. Teaching in this environment, she explained, “gave me a basis for what I wanted to do in art”—namely to address the lives of working-class African Americans. Friends belies its diminutive scale, projecting a monumental presence that is both graphic and sculptural, qualities present throughout the artist’s politically charged work. Catlett foregrounds the expressive, angular faces of her subjects, crafted with an intricately layered web of fluctuating linear patterns. Made early in her career, the work already showcases the artist’s mastery of technique and composition in the tautly constructed play of folds and curves of the couple’s clothes and in the quiet drama of their gaze-driven dialogue.\n","remarks":"AMER2_23-27_WLA  Day 1 Cataloguing"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Acquired from the artist by William Patterson (1891-1980) and Louise Thompson Patterson (1901-1999), NYC; thence by descent to Private collection; [ Swann Galleries, NYC, December 15, 2015, lot 21]; purchased by the  Princeton University Art Museum, December, 2015.","remarks":null}],"media":[{"id":192980,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2015_9746","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"restricted","caption":"PUAM photo"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"<p>\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2016,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 75/76 (2016-17): 126-157.</p>","citation":"<p>\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2016,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 75/76 (2016-17): 126-157.</p>, p. 149 (illus.)","date":2016,"id":9662,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40228781"}],"exhibitions":[],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: North America, United States, New York, New York, Harlem","code":"Place made","continent":"North America","subcontinent":null,"country":"United States","region":null,"state":"New York","city":"New York","county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":"Harlem","locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"https://www.geonames.org/5656197/harlem.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2055723,"term":"portraits","aatid":300015637,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2185092,"term":"Artists of Africa's Diasporas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Collection Theme"},{"id":2167923,"term":"egg tempera","aatid":300015064,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2048141,"term":"Masonite (TM)","aatid":300014205,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2140905,"term":"colored pencils","aatid":300022441,"termtype":"Tools"}],"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"}],"cultures":[],"cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"periods":[],"periodterms":[],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"46.35"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"41.27"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"3.49"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"28.57"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"23.49"}],"packages":[{"packageid":196698,"name":"MoCo-Feminism"},{"packageid":195744,"name":"PUAM_Women in Art"},{"packageid":208013,"name":"PUAM_Art of Comprehension"},{"packageid":228577,"name":"2023_ART490/GSS490/VIS490_11_06"},{"packageid":234201,"name":"PUAM_Light and Color"},{"packageid":213904,"name":"Gallery_23-27(Pavilion7)-American"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":188195,"name":"web_NSS-tour"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":282448,"name":"Bingo_Faces"},{"packageid":2929,"name":"Web_RecentAcq"},{"packageid":197222,"name":"PUAM_Curate Your Own Exibition"},{"packageid":192129,"name":"PUAM_Highlights"},{"packageid":268550,"name":"Web_CA_2025_North American"},{"packageid":182966,"name":"Tour_Highlights"},{"packageid":229644,"name":"web_2023_WomenArtists"},{"packageid":204035,"name":"Teaching Kit Reproductions 8 1/2 x 11"},{"packageid":182974,"name":"Tour_American"},{"packageid":195578,"name":"PUAM_American"},{"packageid":204177,"name":"web_whitman"},{"packageid":279982,"name":"Line_Color_Shape"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2015_9746"],"displaymaker":"Elizabeth Catlett, 1915–2012; born Washington, D.C., died Cuernavaca, Mexico","displayculture":null,"displayperiod":null,"caption":"Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012; born Washington, D.C., died Cuernavaca, Mexico), Friends, 1944. Egg tempera and blue colored pencil on Masonite board; 28.6 × 23.5 cm, 46.4 × 41.3 × 3.5 cm (frame). Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund (2016-10)","captionhtml":"Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012; born Washington, D.C., died Cuernavaca, Mexico), <i>Friends</i>, 1944. Egg tempera and blue colored pencil on Masonite board; 28.6 × 23.5 cm, 46.4 × 41.3 × 3.5 cm (frame). Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund (2016-10)","published_date":"2026-02-11 14:23:13.995310","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":true}