Defense Worker

Artist: Dox Thrash, American, 1893–1965
Associated: Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Washington, D.C., active 1935–1943
Date: c.1941
Material: Carborundum mezzotint
made in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
Classification: Prints
Collection: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
Current Location: Not on view
Dimensions: plate: 7 1/2 x 6 3/8 in. (19.1 x 16.2 cm)
sheet: 8 x 7 in. (20.3 x 17.8 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 339:1943

NOTES

Dox Thrash combined monumental proportions with a unique, elevated perspective to present his World War II defense worker as a heroic figure. This luminous print is an example of one of the greatest technical innovations of the WPA Graphic Arts division: carborundum printing, a technique in which gritty crystals are used to roughen the printing plate before the white areas are scraped from the surface. Thrash developed and refined the process while working at the Federal Art Project Fine Print Workshop in Philadelphia during the Great Depression.

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