Achievement1940· arts
Elizabeth Catlett wins first prize in sculpture at American Negro Exposition
Elizabeth Catlett won first prize in sculpture at the 1940 Chicago American Negro Exposition for her limestone 'Negro Mother and Child,' her master's thesis at the University of Iowa, where she studied under Grant Wood. The award inaugurated a career that made her one of the foremost sculptors of the twentieth century and a foundational figure in Black feminist visual art.