Thrash was a prolific and innovative printmaker during the 1930s and 1940s, when he worked for the WPA’s highly respected Fine Print Workshop of Philadelphia. There he developed a new intaglio process whereby the surface of a metal plate was roughened with Carborundum, a gritty abrasive that allowed for a maximum amount of ink on the plate and rich, velvety black areas in the resulting print. Thrash used this technique to expressive ends in The Welder, where the worker, enveloped in darkness, is dramatically lit by the flying sparks of his welding torch.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Welder
Artist:Dox Thrash (American, Griffin, Georgia 1893–1965 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Date:ca. 1936–41
Medium:Carborundum mezzotint
Dimensions:Sheet: 10 × 6 in. (25.4 × 15.2 cm) Plate: 4 7/8 × 4 in. (12.4 × 10.2 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
Accession Number:1999.529.167
[Susan Teller Gallery, New York, until 1994; sold on March 1, 1994 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1994–99; their gift to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "City Life: Around the Eight," August 22, 2000–January 14, 2001, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 43.
Paris. Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. "The Color Line. Les artistes africains-américains et la ségrégation," October 4, 2016–January 15, 2017, unnumbered cat. (p. 214).
David R. Brigham. "Bridging Identities: Dox Thrash as African American and Artist." Smithsonian Studies in American Art 4 (Spring 1990), p. 37 n. 4 (unknown edition).
Michael J. Gallagher and His Circle, Including Prints from the Philadelphia W.P.A. Exh. cat., Susan Teller Gallery. New York, 1994, unpaginated, no. 53 (unknown edition), calls it "Welder".
John Ittmann. Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2001, p. 111, no. 108, ill. (not this edition, Collection of John Warren, Philadelphia), dates it about 1942–44 and notes it was included, but not hung, in the artist's solo exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1944.
David R. Brigham in John Ittmann. Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2001, p. 58.
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 41, 57, 78, no. 43, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 75.
Rachel Mustalish inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 87–88, fig. 8 (detail), illustration detail shows "the white highlights and subtle gray tones that result from burnishing on the printing plate in the mezzotint process".
Randall R. Griffey inMy Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 32, 104, fig. 17 (color).
Rachel Mustalish in Allison Rudnick. Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, p. 53, fig. 31 (color detail).
Lowery Stokes Sims inThe Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. Ed. Denise Murrell. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2024, p. 121, fig. 97 (color).
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