Catlett, who studied with Lois Mailou Jones at Howard University, fell in love with sculpture and the work of Mexican muralists under the tutelage of James Porter. Later, she earned the first master’s degree awarded in fine arts at the State University of Iowa. Catlett won a Rosenwald Fund fellowship in 1946 and traveled to Mexico, where she was befriended by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Mora, whom she later married; she lived in Mexico for the rest of her life. Her renown as a sculptor and printmaker developed steadily over her long career.