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Artists›Eldzier Cortor

Eldzier Cortor

Artist

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80%

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About

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Eldzier Cortor was an American painter and printmaker working in oil and etching whose compositions merged modernist spatial flattening with intimate domestic and social scenes rooted in postwar African American life. His technical precision in both media, combined with disciplined compositional control, positioned him as a significant figure in mid-twentieth-century American art. Cortor's work balanced formal innovation with narrative depth, exploring the psychological and social dimensions of everyday experience.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 25d ago

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Figuration

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Painting

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12 in graph

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum of Modern ArtNew York Art Institute of Chicago Whitney Museum of American Art

Canonical record

Artworks (53)

Sepia Odalisque III

1998 · Etching and aquatint with flat bite on cut plate in brown-black on cream wove paper

Image/plate: 48.5 × 35 cm (19 1/8 × 13 13/16 in.); Sheet: 76.3 × 56.4 cm (30 1/16 × 22 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Sepia Odalisque II

1998 · Etching and aquatint on cut plate in brown on cream wove paper

Image/plate: 52 × 35 cm (20 1/2 × 13 13/16 in.); Sheet: 76 × 55.5 cm (29 15/16 × 21 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Sepia Odalisque I

1998 · Etching and aquatint with flat bite on cut plate in brown-black on cream wove paper

Image/plate: 50.1 × 34.8 cm (19 3/4 × 13 3/4 in.); Sheet: 76 × 56.2 cm (29 15/16 × 22 3/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Trilogy No. II

1989 · Etching, soft ground etching, and aquatint in red on cream wove paper

Image/plate: 51.9 × 38.2 cm (20 7/16 × 15 1/16 in.); Sheet: 70.5 × 50.5 cm (27 13/16 × 19 15/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Jewels/Theme VI

1985 · Mezzotint with etching in black and color aquatint with etching from multiple plates on ivory wove paper

Image: 59.8 × 42 cm (23 9/16 × 16 9/16 in.); Plate: 60.5 × 42.7 cm (23 7/8 × 16 13/16 in.); Sheet: 76.4 × 56.4 cm (30 1/8 × 22 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Jewels/Theme I

1985 · Mezzotint with etching in black and color aquatint with etching from multiple plates on ivory wove paper

Image: 57.9 × 42.3 cm (22 13/16 × 16 11/16 in.); Plate: 60.7 × 42.4 cm (23 15/16 × 16 3/4 in.); Sheet: 76.4 × 56.7 cm (30 1/8 × 22 3/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Jewels/Theme III

1985 · Mezzotint with etching in black and color aquatint with etching from multiple plates on ivory wove paper

Image: 58.2 × 40.8 cm (22 15/16 × 16 1/8 in.); Plate: 60.8 × 42.7 cm (23 15/16 × 16 13/16 in.); Sheet: 76.3 × 57 cm (30 1/16 × 22 1/2 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Jewels/Theme V

1985 · Mezzotint with etching in black and color aquatint with etching from multiple plates on ivory wove paper

Image/plate: 58.5 × 41.3 cm (23 1/16 × 16 5/16 in.); Sheet: 76.7 × 56.6 cm (30 1/4 × 22 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

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Art Institute of Chicago

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In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

Whitney Museum of American Art

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