Marylou
<p>At the age of 15, Dox Thrash left his native Georgia and moved to Chicago, eventually enrolling as an evening student at the School of the Art Institute and working as a janitor during the day. An innovative printmaker, he coinvented the carborundum mezzotint process while employed on the Federal Art Project in Philadelphia. In this print, he utilized carborundum crystals (more commonly used for grinding lithographic stones) to roughen the surface of a metal plate, which resulted in deep black tones. The lighter areas of the design were then recaptured when the artist used a burnishing tool to smooth the plate.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1935
- Dimensions
- Image/plate: 25.1 × 17.5 cm (9 15/16 × 6 15/16 in.); Sheet: 31.3 × 22.4 cm (12 3/8 × 8 7/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Dox Thrash
Artist
Printmaking
Dox Thrash was an American printmaker and painter known for his pioneering work in the carborundum print technique, which he developed to create rich, textured surfaces on paper. Active from the 1920s through the 1960s, he worked primarily in Philadelphia, producing prints and paintings that engaged with portraiture, social subjects, and abstraction. His technical innovations in printmaking contributed significantly to the medium's expansion in twentieth-century American art.
Full artist profile →More
More by Dox Thrash
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Dox Thrash
- Year
- 1935
- Dimensions
- Image/plate: 25.1 × 17.5 cm (9 15/16 × 6 15/16 in.); Sheet: 31.3 × 22.4 cm (12 3/8 × 8 7/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1935-087083
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified