Printmaker and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, who died in 2012, still feels quite alive through her life’s work. I visited the Cantor Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross having intentionally avoided reviewing the press material sent for its “The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Collection of Samella Lewis” so that I would react to the art without preconception.

That changed in hurry as I realized that much of her work had been a subliminal part of my life, whether seeing it growing up in the city that gave the world Abbie Hoffmanand that had many social programs in its neighborhoods, or in my teenage years that followed as I became more aware of social and political protests. It felt warm and familiar and my thoughts turned to wondering how the college students who get to use the show as a backdrop for their fall studies were reacting to the work at a time that on-campus activism feels reenergized.

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