Dox Thrash: The Hopeful Gaze

Dox Thrash (1893–1965) was an African-American artist who was famed as a skilled draftsman, printmaker, and painter of African American life and as the co-inventor of the Carborundum printmaking process.

The artist spent much of his career living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In much of his work, Thrash portrays black families transitioning from the South to the North during the Great Migration, making a hopeful, daring leap to attempt to be equal members of the society that has historically oppressed them. Their hopeful gazes convey the optimism of the scores of African Americans who left the countryside to pursue better job opportunities, health care, and education in urban centers.

This exhibition is curated by Curator of Prints and Drawings Sachi Yanari Rizzo. Thank you to Dolan Maxwell for their help with this exhibition. 

Sponsored by Eve and Clifford Clarke, the Ferguson Family, Brenda and Steve Fishbaugh and Patricia S. Griest through their gifts to the 2019 Annual Appeal.