Elizabeth Catlett (American, 1915-2012) bronze sculpture titled "The Family", depicting an African American father, mother and child standing and embracing one another. Initialed "EC" on the sculpture base. Sculpture with ebonized brushed patina and mounted onto a square wood base. Sculpture: 14 5/8" H x 5" W. 16 3/4" overall total H. Provenance: private California collection, by descent from the estate of Clara D'Agostino, New York. Artist biography: Elizabeth Catlett is best known for her prints and sculpture, which she believed could help inspire social change, particularly in regards to African American women. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1940 from the University of Iowa. Her painting teacher at Iowa was the artist Grant Wood, who encouraged his students to make art about the subjects that they knew best and to experiment with different art mediums. Catlett went on to become the Chair of the Art Department at Dillard University in New Orleans. and from 1944-1946 taught at the George Washington Carver School in Harlem, which offered instruction for the working men and women of the city. In 1946, she was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship. She and her husband, the artist Charles White, traveled to Mexico. She eventually settled there and eventually married the artist Francisco Mora. She worked as the first woman professor of sculpture and later Chair of the department at the National School of the Fine Arts in Mexico. (Source: Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, "American Women Artists," and the National Museum of Women in the Arts). Condition: Overall very good condition.