SAINT LOUIS.- The Saint Louis Art Museum presents "Dox Thrash: An African-American Master Printmaker Rediscovered," on view through April 13, 2003. From the country roads of Georgia to Philadelphia’s city streets, this exhibition follows the journey of Dox Thrash (1893-1965), a remarkable American artist whose poetic prints and drawings paint an indelible portrait of his life and times.

An innovative and influential artist, Thrash was well-grounded in the academic traditions of American and European art. During World War I, Thrash was a member of the Army’s 92nd Division "Buffalo Soldiers." After the war, he became a student at the Art Institute of Chicago and later participated in the Harlem Renaissance movement in New York.

This retrospective of approximately 60 prints, drawings, and watercolors focuses on work Thrash produced for the government-sponsored Works Progress Administration (WPA) and later pieces from the 1940s and 1950s. While at the Fine Print Workshop of the WPA in the late 1930s, Thrash played a pivotal role in the development of a new printmaking process, the carborundum print, which uses the abrasive carborundum to roughen the surface of a copper plate. To create an image, the artist removes the roughness using scrapers; the resulting prints contain a range of soft tones. The artistry of Thrash’s prints has ensured that his name is most closely linked with this distinctive technique.

Drawn from public and private collections, the works in the exhibition have been selected to demonstrate Thrash’s sweeping vision and great versatility - in style, subject matter, and technique. The subjects Thrash mastered include his childhood in rural Georgia, his time in the military, portraits, and the urban African-American experience.

Dox Thrash: An African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In St. Louis, the exhibition is coordinated by Phillip Prodger, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs.