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Harmonica Blues, by Dox Thrash, circa 1937-38
flipFlip to Poster for a Federal Art Project exhibit in Pittsburgh at the Bessemer Gallery, circa 1938.
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A man's large hand is the focus in the foreground of this work that depicts the face of a man playing a harmonica.

Credit: Federal Works Agency, Work Progress Administration on deposit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

While employed by the WPA Federal Art Project, black Philadelphia artist Dox Thrash developed the carborundum mezzotint, a new process for creating copper-plate etchings, while working at the Fine Print Workshop in Philadelphia. Widely respected for his work in this medium, Thrash created striking images of African-American life in the mid-twentieth century. In 2002, the Philadelphia Museum of Art honored him with a posthumous show, "Dox Thrash: An African-American Master Printmaker Rediscovered."

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