October 25–November 1, 2001

arts picks|art

Dox Thrash

The Philadelphia Museum of Art opens its major retrospective of African-American printmaker Dox Thrash this week, and there are events all over the city to celebrate the exhibit and the art of printmaking. Thrash was born in 1893 in rural Georgia. After serving in the all-black infantry known as the Buffalo Soldiers in World War I and a period where he did everything from performing with the circus to taking art classes in Chicago, Thrash settled in Philadelphia around 1926 and developed new methods of printmaking that gained him national recognition. The Art Museum’s exhibit features 100 prints, drawings and watercolors by Thrash, and has spawned three months worth of exhibits, lectures and events organized by the Philadelphia Printmaking Collaborative. Celebrating Prints and Printmaking in Homage to Dox Thrash includes exhibits on current local printmakers at SPECTOR gallery, a digital printmaking exhibition at Drexel, a showing of InLiquid artists at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Swedish print artist Russell Christoffersen at the American Swedish Historical Museum and dozens of others. Programs include lectures at the Art Museum, like this Sunday’s "Speaking to Olympia’s Maid: Dox Thrash’s Images of African American Women" by exhibit catalogue writer Kimberly Pinder. The lectures, workshops and exhibits will be popping up through the end of the year, making Philly one heck of a printmaking town.

—Debra Auspitz

Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered, Oct. 27- Feb. 24, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th and the Parkway, 215-763-8100. For a full schedule of related events, visit www.printcollaborative.org.