Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Announce Acquisition of Elizabeth Catlett’s Bronze Portrait Bust of Martin Luther King Jr.
Jan 15, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Announce Acquisition of Elizabeth Catlett’s Bronze Portrait Bust of Martin Luther King Jr.
Cast of bronze portrait sculpture of legendary civil rights leader on public view for the first time
de Young museum, located on Main Level in Gallery 14
SAN FRANCISCO, January 15, 2025 - The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the “Fine Arts Museums”) are pleased to announce the acquisition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1984-1985), a bronze portrait bust of the legendary Civil Rights leader by trailblazing artist Elizabeth Catlett. The Fine Arts Museums hold the most significant survey collection of American art in the western United States and the portrait bust will be on public view at the de Young museum beginning Saturday, January 18th, 2025.
“Elizabeth Catlett is among the most consequential American artists of the 20th century, whose groundbreaking sculptures and prints bear witness to her lifelong advocacy for Black Americans and other historically marginalized communities,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “We are immensely proud to make Catlett’s extraordinary portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accessible to de Young audiences. The bust encompasses a fascinating history that will significantly expand our ability to speak to Dr. King’s enduring impact on American life, and the politics involved in how he has been memorialized in public art.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. comes from the private collection of Reverend Douglas E. Moore, a classmate of King's at Boston University in the early 1950s, who organized one of the earliest civil rights sit-ins, and his wife, Dr. Doris Hughes-Moore, the first Black woman to earn a doctorate of veterinary medicine degree from Purdue University. This bronze portrait bust, first created by Catlett for a 1984-1985 competition to commemorate the Civil Rights leader in the rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, will be on view to the public for the first time since its creation. Catlett’s portrait bust joins two other works by the artist in the Fine Arts Museums’ collection: a commissioned mahogany sculpture Stepping Out (2000) and the linoleum print I’m Sojourner Truth, I Fought for the Rights of Women, as Well as Blacks (1947). At the de Young, the sculpture will be prominently displayed near Jack Levine's painting, Birmingham '63 (1963), which commemorates the pivotal protests led by Dr. King and other civil rights leaders in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Catlett's sculptures and prints are notable for their consistent commitment to empowering their subjects--including people of color in general, and women in particular," added Timothy Anglin Burgard, Distinguished Senior Curator and Ednah Root Curator in Charge of American Art at the Fine Arts Museums. “Forty years after its creation, her majestic and commanding portrait of Dr. King retains its relevance for contemporary discourse regarding the ongoing struggles and sacrifices for civil rights."
Martin Luther King Jr. had deep San Francisco connections. As a child, he spent summers with extended family in the Western Addition. He also spoke about the Montgomery bus boycott at the national NAACP convention at San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium in 1956; lobbied delegates at the 1964 Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace to support the Civil Rights Act; gave the speech for the consecration of the completed Grace Cathedral in 1965; and spoke at both Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, about eradicating poverty and hunger and about the nation's role in Vietnam in 1967. San Francisco is also home to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Fountain in Yerba Buena Gardens.
The acquisition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a museum purchase, made possible by the Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden Acquisition Fund.
About Elizabeth Catlett
Born in Washington, DC, Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was the granddaughter of Africans liberated from enslavement, a legacy that profoundly shaped her artistic practice. She grew up during the Great Depression and pursued her dream of becoming an artist, eventually becoming the first woman to earn an MFA (1940) in sculpture from the University of Iowa.
In 1942, Catlett moved to New York City, where she honed her skills in sculpture and printmaking. In 1946, she settled permanently in Mexico City, where she studied wood sculpture and ceramics. She became an integral member of Mexico’s artistic community and found herself deeply inspired by the socialist and populist ideals of Mexican art, translating this activism into her images of African American working women and Black political subjects.
Catlett’s political activism on behalf of civil rights—both in her art and in her public life—led to her being declared an “undesirable alien” by the United States government, which barred her from entering the country. In 1962, Catlett formally renounced her US citizenship, which was not officially restored until 2002.
Catlett’s work is represented and celebrated in dozens of major public collections across the United States.
About the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The de Young museum originated from the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition in Golden Gate Park. The present copper-clad landmark building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opened in 2005. Reflecting an active conversation among cultures, perspectives, and time periods, the collections on view include American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the 17th to the 21st centuries; arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; costume and textile arts; and international modern and contemporary art.
American Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The American art collections at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco span four centuries and include more than 5,000 examples of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts created by artists of Indigenous ancestry, early European colonists, forcibly enslaved Africans and their descendants, and immigrants and their succeeding generations. The American art collection on view at the de Young provides a public forum—a gathering place for people, art, and ideas that have their roots in history, flourish in the present, and will continue to grow in the future.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are located on land unceded by the Ramaytush Ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of what is now the San Francisco Peninsula. The greater Bay Area is also the ancestral territory of other Ohlone peoples, as well as the Miwok, Yokuts, and Patwin. We acknowledge, recognize, and honor the Indigenous ancestors, elders, and descendants whose nations and communities have lived in the Bay Area over many generations and continue to do so today. We respect the enduring relationships that exist between Indigenous peoples and their homelands. We are committed to partnering with Indigenous communities to raise awareness of their legacy and engage with the history of the region, the impacts of genocide, and the dynamics of settler colonialism that persist today.
Media Contact
Greta Gordon, Communications Manager, ggordon@famsf.org