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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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