From the Palmer Museum of Art:

Saturday Night by Dox Thrash, Image Courtesy of Palmer Museum of Art

Philadelphia-based artist Dox Thrash (1893–1965) was both a pioneering printmaker and a noted participant in the “New Negro” movement of the 1930s and ’40s. A veteran of World War I as well as the minstrel stage, he trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before making his way to Philadelphia, where he ultimately forged a career as both a painter and a graphic artist.

In 1937, Thrash signed on for employment with the Federal Art Project’s Fine Print Workshop. There, while working with fellow artists Hugh Mesibov and Michael Gallagher, he began to experiment with a new approach to intaglio printmaking, which today is known as the carborundum mezzotint process. With its broad tonal range, the new process was ideally suited to the sensitive portrayals of Black life for which Thrash would become known.

Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint brings together numerous examples of the experimental process by Thrash and other colleagues working in the Fine Print Workshop. Also on view are works by Thrash in other print mediums, as well as watercolors and drawings, all of which powerfully document the artist’s intimate, invested engagement with African American culture in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

The exhibition was organized with Dolan/Maxwell.

Exhibition Details: On View Now – May 20, 2018

Gallery Talk: Dox Thrash: Resisting the Urge Toward Whiteness

Joyce Robinson, curator

Date: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2018 – 12:10PM

Explore Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint and participate in this engaging conversation led by Joyce Robinson in the exhibition gallery located on the museum’s first floor.

MUSEUM HOURS

Tuesday through Saturday | 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Sunday | Noon to 4:00 p.m. : Monday – Closed
REDUCED HOURS

Saturday, March 3, through Sunday, March 11 | Noon to 4:00 p.m.
(Closed Monday, March 5)

CLOSED | Sunday, April 1

Location

PALMER MUSEUM OF ART
The Pennsylvania State University
Curtin Road
University Park, PA 16802

For more information, contact  814-865-7672 or visit: http://palmermuseum.psu.edu/