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DOX
THRASH - A MASTER PRINTMAKER REDISCOVERED
THIS SIGNIFICANT ART COLLECTION IS NOW BEING OFFERED TO MUSEUMS, UNIVERSITIES
AND SERIOUS COLLECTORS WORLDWIDE.
NOW A SOPHISTICATED ART COLLECTOR CAN PURCHASE A COMPLETE RETROSPECTIVE AND PROGRESSION
OF THE ARTIST'S WORKS WITH TOTAL CONFIDENCE ; THE PRINT OR CARBORUNDUM THAT WAS THE STUDY PIECE FOR THE DRAWING ; THE DRAWING
THAT WAS THE STUDY PIECE FOR THE WATERCOLOR ; THE WATERCOLOR THAT WAS THE STUDY PIECE FOR THE OIL.
ALL WITH THE TOTAL ASSURANCE
THAT EACH WORK HAS BEEN AUTHENTICATED BY THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART AND ALL ARE LISTED AND OR PHOTOGRAPHED IN JOHN ITTMANN'S
CATALOGUE RAISONE ON DOX THRASH WITH THE NOWAK NAME LISTED IN THE PROVENANCE. THERE IS NO GREATER COLLECTION OF DOX THRASH'S
WORKS IN THE WORLD.
BIOGRAPHY
SAMUEL AND SALLY NOWAK BEGAN COLLECTING ART IN 1945. THEY WERE GREATLY
INFLUENCED BY THEIR NEIGHBORS, ALBERT BARNES AND HIS WIFE LAURA WHO WERE ALSO AVID ART COLLECTORS IN PHILADELPHIA. TODAY,
THE BARNES FOUNDATION HOUSES ONE OF THE GREATEST COLLECTIONS OF IMPRESSIONIST ART MASTERPIECES IN THE WORLD. ALBERT BARNES
AND SAMUEL NOWAK NOT ONLY WENT OUT SOCIALLY, BUT THEY SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS TOGETHER AT SESSLER'S BOOK STORE IN PHILADELPHIA,
SEARCHING FOR PRINTS AND OTHER WORKS OF ART. EVENTUALLY, BARNES SHARED WITH NOWAK HIS STRATEGY OF BUYING AN ENTIRE COLLECTION
OF AN ARTIST'S WORK. BARNES TRAVELED TO EUROPE AND COLLECTED THE IMPRESSIONISTS WHILE NOWAK COLLECTED AMERICAN WORKS FROM
THE ASHCAN SCHOOL SUCH AS JOHN SLOAN, GEORGE LUX AND ROBERT HENRI. THE NOWAK COLLECTION ALSO INCLUDED MILTON AVERY, PICASSO,
CASSATT, ROUALT, MATISSE, RIVERA, MAILLOL, RODIN, DUFY, PRENDERGAST AND BASKIN. FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS PROVIDENT NATIONAL
BANK EXHIBITED SAMUEL AND SALLY NOWAK'S JOHN SLOAN COLLECTION WHICH WAS ALSO FEATURED IN MOORSE'S CATALOGUE RAISONE OF THE
ARTIST.
IN ADDITION TO THE "ASH-CAN SCHOOL", THE NOWAKS COLLECTED MANY OF THE "WPA" ARTISTS. AMONG THOSE ARTISTS
WAS DOX THRASH, WHO THE NOWAKS MET IN 1945 AT AN EXHIBIT HE PARTICIPATED IN AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART. NOWAK PURCHASED
NUMEROUS WORKS AND BECAME GOOD FRIENDS WITH THRASH AND HIS WIFE. WHEN THRASH DIED IN 1965, MRS. THRASH CONTACTED SAMUEL NOWAK
AND HE PURCHASED THE REMAINDER OF DOX THRASH'S ART IN THE FAMILY'S ESTATE. DURING THE 1960'S, THE NOWAK'S TRAVELED BETWEEN
NEW YORK AND EUROPE PURCHASING ART. IN 1964 THE NOWAKS MOVED FROM THEIR HOME ON PHILADELPHIA'S MAIN LINE TO "THE PHILADELPHIAN",
A HIGH RISE APARTMENT ON THE PARKWAY DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART. RENOWNED FOR THEIR PHILANTHROPY,
SAMUEL AND SALLY NOWAK WERE MEMBERS OF AN ELITE GROUP OF COLLECTORS / DONORS AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, KNOWN AS
THE "FRIENDS". THEIR NAMES ARE INSCRIBED ON A DISTINGUISHED PLAQUE AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART FOR NUMEROUS ACTS OF
GENEROSITY AND PHILANTHROPY. THE NOWAK'S SOCIALIZED WITH MAJOR PHILANTHROPISTS WALTER AND LENORE ANNENBERG WHO WERE ALSO MEMBERS
OF THE "FRIENDS". AFTER STAYING AS GUESTS AT THE ANNENBERG'S HOME IN CALIFORNIA, THE NOWAKS GAVE SEVERAL OF DOX THRASH'S WORKS
TO THEM AS A GIFT.
SAMUEL NOWAK DIED IN 1975 LEAVING THE ART TO HIS WIFE, SALLY NOWAK, WHO CONTINUED TO ACTIVELY
COLLECT ART AND ANTIQUES FOR THE NEXT QUARTER OF A CENTURY. SEVERAL OF THE MARY CASSATT WATERCOLORS AND DRAWINGS SHE ACQUIRED
DURING HER LIFETIME ARE PUBLISHED IN ADELYN BREESKIN'S CATALOGUE RAISONE, WHICH LISTS SAMUEL AND SALLY NOWAK IN THE PROVENANCE
ALONG WITH HUGO DREYFUS, ANOTHER PERSONAL FRIEND AND COLLECTOR.
IN 1999 SALLY NOWAK PASSED AWAY AND WILLED THE
ART COLLECTION TO HER SON, ALLAN NOWAK. SOTHEBY'S AND OTHER APPRAISERS EVALUATED THE COLLECTION AND WHEN THEY CAME UPON
SEVERAL THRASH WORKS THAT WERE DISPLAYED ON THE WALLS THEY ASKED ALLAN NOWAK FOR PERMISSION TO LEND THE WORKS AND MANY OTHERS
TO A DOX THRASH SHOW THAT WAS BEING ORGANIZED BY THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART UNDER THE DIRECTION OF "CURATOR" JOHN ITTMANN.
ALLAN NOWAK AGREED AND ITTMANN AND HIS STAFF CATALOGUED, EXAMINED, MEASURED, EVALUATED AND PHOTOGRAPHED THE COLLECTION. JOHN
ITTMANN COMPILED A "WORLD RENOWNED" CATALOGUE RAISONE ON DOX THRASH, WHICH LISTS ALL OF THE WORKS IN THE NOWAK COLLECTION.
THE DOX THRASH SHOW OPENED AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART AND THEN TRAVELED TO THE TERRA MUSEUM IN CHICAGO AND THE ST.
LOUIS ART MUSEUM.
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SAMUEL AND SALLY NOWAK
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Dox Thrash
Born 1893, Griffin, Georgia; died
1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
1933 First Harmon Foundation Exhibition
1938 WPA Prints
Philadelphia Museum of Art
1939 New York World's Fair
1942 Howard University (solo)
1944 Philadelphia Art Alliance
(solo)
1945 The Pyramid Club (solo)
1948 Smithsonian Institute (solo)
1970 James A. Porter Gallery
1987 Philadelphia
Free Library (solo)
1989 Dolan/Maxwell Gallery (solo)
1995 National Museum of American Art
1994-97 Alone in a Crowd:
Prints by African Americans from the Collection
of Dave & Reba Williams (traveling Museum Exhibition)
1994-95 The Harriet
& Harmon Kelley Collection of African American
Art, organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art
1997 Prized Impressions:
Gifts from the Print Center of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art
1998 Major Prints Dolan/Maxwell at the
National
Black Fine Art Show, New York City
2000 An Exuberant Bounty: Prints and Drawings by African Americans
Philadelphia Museum
of Art
2001-03 Dox Thrash: African American Master Printmaker Rediscovered
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Terra Museum
of
American Art, Chicago & St. Louis Art Museum (solo)
2003 African American Artists, 1929-1945
Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York City
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Baltimore Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mary
and Leigh Block Gallery
The New York Public Library
British Museum
Smithsonian Museum
Bryn Mawr College
PA
Academy of Fine Arts
Cleveland Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Free Library of Philadelphia
St Louis
Museum of Art
Grinnell College
University of Georgia Art Museum
Independence Seaport Museum
Telfair Art Museum
Library
of Congress
Whitney Museum of Art
Lincoln University
Wolfsonian Foundation
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alone
in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930’s and 1940’s by African American
Artists from the collection of Dave & Reba Williams, Washburn
Press, 1993
Beardon, Romare, and Harry Henderson, A History of African
American Artists from 1792 to the Present, NY,
Pantheon, 1993
The Harriet and Harmon Kelley Collection of African American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, 1994
Porter,
James A., Modern Negro Art, 3rd Ed.,Washington, DC, Howard University Press, 1992
Locke, Alain, The Negro in Art, Washington,
DC, Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1940
Thrash, Dox, History of My Life, in Ruth Fine, Philadelphia: Three
Centuries
of American Art (exhibition catalogue), Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976
U.S. Works Projects Administration, The Carborundum
Print, WPA
Technical Series, Art Circular No. 5, Washington, DC, 1940
Bridging Identities: Dox Thrash as African American
and Artist,
Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol. 4, No. 2, Spring 1990
Ittmann, John, Dox Thrash–African American
Master Printmaker Rediscovered
Univenger, Lisa, African American Artists, 1929-1945, University of Yale Press and Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Winter 2003
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