Dox Thrash - Making Prints of His Real Life - Research Paper Example

Dox Thrash - Making Prints of His Real Life Abstract In the 1930 and 1940’s newspapers allowed artists to express their feelings to a larger audience, but the United States government used this art as propaganda for entering into World War II. Social realism became a major factor in artists’ work. This movement was a group of individuals that were unhappy with the turn capitalism took after World War I. These artists produced real art illustrating the Depression Era. For the African America community the events portrayed in their art could be anything from poverty to lynching. Soon the government began using the social realism inspired art for their own reasons. Since the art was funded by the government, the art could be used for government purposes. One such artist is Dox Thrash. Defense Worker is one print created by Thrash which will be examined as a relative piece of art of the Depression Era. Another print from Thrash is Boats at Night which is also inspired by social realism will also be looked at. While Thrash was making prints of his real life, the U.S. government took these prints and used them for their own purposes. Defense Worker and Boats at Night by Dox Thrash will be examined in relation to social realism inspired art being used for United States government propaganda. Dox Thrash created both of these prints using a pioneer technique. Thrash had created a new printing technique called carborundum mezzotint.1 Both prints were commissioned by the WPA during the depression. The subjects of these prints were influenced by social realism. The Depression Era made many artists, including Thrash, rethink their perspectives on life and art. Artists begin to think capitalism might not be the best form of government. Kathe Kollwitz was a German artist that dealt with the same issues as Thrash. One of her paintings will be compared to Thrash’s in order to show how different countries reacted to the situation after World War I. The artists sketched, painted, or carved art reflecting their new views. An analysis of these two works will be undertaken along with a comparison to Kollwitz’s work. Dox Thrash has created two incomparable prints that illustrated the Depression Era, but his art was used as government propaganda in the end. Dox Thrash’s Defense Worker is a male worker. Thrash completed this piece in 1942.2 The worker is using a jack hammer, power sweeper, or some other piece of equipment. The huge male is a worker. This can be determined by the clothes, boots, and helmet the man wears in this print. There is a white billow of steam behind the figure. The impression given is a man working in a heavy industrial business. Depending on the interpretation, this man can be white or black. Thrash intended for this figure to be black due to the social realism influence. However, since the print was created using carborundum mezzotint, Defense Worker is in black and white. 3 Defense Worker Since this is a print, it has a smooth surface. This worker is defending something according to the title. This print is an interesting piece of art from the time of the Depression Era. Boats at Night by Dox Thrash is a small boat at a dock. This print is dated 1940.4 The boat looks like it is being loaded with cargo due to the closest side sitting lower in the water. There appears to be more than one boat in the water, but only one at dock. Boat at Night5 This print was also made with carborundum mezzotint. As a print, this scene is smooth and does not have a rough texture. The scene is in black and white. The moon peeks through the dark clouds and shine on the water. Although carefully designed, this print is dark. Thrash used white and black to contrast each other, but he used shades of gray also. The lighting conveys the message the boat is on a clandestine mission. Social realism was a type of movement during the Depression Era. This type of art reflected the poverty, inequality, and other injustices of capitalism in vivid detail. For example, one artist: Mr. Barnet's earliest themes reflect the social realism that dominated Depression Era art. ''Desolation,'' a view of several despondent homeless figures in a barren industrial area, is among the most successful examples.6 The poor man working is another aspect of social realism. Defense Worker shows a black man working hard in an industrial business. This print was more of hope that one day black and white men would not have to work alone, but side by side. The messages being sent were not exactly approved by the general public, or the government. Since the government was funding the artists, the U.S. government had a vested interest in how the art was used. That is why many pieces of art, including Thrash’s, were taken and put to use in the United States’ propaganda machine. Both Defense Worker and Boats at Night were commissioned by the Work Projects Administration (WPA).7 The WPA was one of FDR’s New Deal programs. The New Deal programs were to stimulate the economy during the depression. The art program “was instituted in I935 with Holger Cahill as national director. For the objective, the ad- ministration of the WPA stated that ‘their primary concern has been with the artist-not simply with art.’"8 The government program was to subsidize artists during the Depression. Doz Thrash was one of the artists being subsidized. Thrash worked alongside other artists employed by the WPA. He worked in the Philadelphia WPA office.9 The art coming out of the WPA during that time was real. The worker and the boats are something that Dox Thrash could have witnessed. One writer explains: In the wake of the crash of 1929, and throughout the decade of the 1930s, American critical discourse was saturated with nationalistic rhetoric. A fusion of ideas from the left and right, sharing the vaguely articulated goal that American art and culture should manifest some organic connection to American life, these multiple nationalisms have come to define the decade.10 Since the goal was to connect with American life, Thrash connected to his experiences as an American. The experiences Thrash expressed were those of a black American male. Defense Worker and Boats at Night reflect those experiences. Defense Worker especially reflected the black worker. It was meant to be a positive black symbol. Boats at Night show a scene that was important enough for Thrash to put it in his print. The boats could have been taking on food or other supplies short in the Depression. On the other hand, the boat could have been loaded with weapons headed for England illegally. Whatever the case, these prints reflect Thrash’s American experiences. As more and more black artists like Thrash expressed their emotions artistically, mainstream America decided that the WPA projects were negative. Although the cultural projects, in common fate with various other WPA projects, undergo a running barrage of criticism from quarters which do not favor this form of direct nursing of American culture by the government, the fact remains that they present on the whole a commendable record of achievement in their four years of existence.11 The government started receiving negative feedback. As a result someone in the United States’ government got the idea to use the art created by social realism in order to propagandize an inevitable war with Germany. First the U.S. government identified the artist that would have the greatest impact on the public. Their services consisted mainly of providing easy media access to agency-generated information and in channeling defense data to specific American publics. These included state and local officials, small town and rural newspaper editors (sometimes overlooked by Washington-based public relations opera- tions), and a select list of individuals and institutions thought to be influential in shaping public attitudes. 12 The government decided this work would be perfect for propaganda. Mass media which included print, radio, and motion pictures became propaganda against the Nazis and Axis powers. Others included in this unofficial draft: The War Department also gave special attention to draftees and defense plant workers. The information these operations supplied was by and large neutral and accurate. It was, nonetheless, propaganda in that its intent and probable effect was to build public confidence in the collective national effort by providing evidence of America's growing military strength.13 Defense Worker instead of standing for a black man, all of a sudden became a defense worker that could protect the United States if necessary. It no longer was a black man, but every American man that defended his country against outsiders. Boats at Night are no longer innocent boats at a dock under government propaganda. “By the middle of May 1941, U-boat depredations against British shipping had roused public interest in United States naval policy.”14 The boats suddenly become renegade boats that are helping the British. The focus is on creating a useful purpose for the art. Thrash’s art could be interpreted as a positive stand for getting into another war in Europe. Thrash did not create his prints to promote aggression by America in Europe. He had a different motive. Thrash wanted to show what it was like in his world at that time. The social realism questioned everything about capitalism. Boats at Night showed the underhanded deals of shady people, or even the government. Any kind of dealings could be going out on the pier. Thrash wanted to capture the moment. Defense Worker was about a worker in defense. However, this black worker is alone. The truth of segregation, imposed in the South, implied up North is shown in this print. The black man is working alone. Even in the background is just steam. The black man stands alone. When Thrash was creating his prints, the Nazis were not seen as a major threat. After the threat was perceived, America had to fight Hitler’s propaganda with propaganda of its own. One author suggests: Criticism of the vast scope of that propaganda effort during the conservative resurgence of the late 1930s had its effect, but by 1940 military and industrial mobilization had once again expanded the public affairs bureaucracy.15 Thus Thrash’s prints were not used maliciously by the government. The black and white prints gave all Americans hope, not just one social group. What the artist meant for his print became something else. This something else helped garner support for the war. Kathe Kollwitz, a German artist, was reacting to her environment as well. She was German. In Germany after World War I the hunger, death, and poverty reached an all time high. As the result, Kollwitz created art that reflect the German pain. She created drawings of poverty, hunger, and everyday life in German. The following picture is Never Again War which was done in 1924. Never Again War16 Kollwitz’s art was considered realism. Like Thrash, she also liked to create prints. Both artists were reacting to World War I, but since they lived in different locations had different subjects. Dox Thrash created prints that were inspired by social realism. The social realism movement was disgusted with capitalism. The realistic pose of a man hard at work, or boats at a dock in the night were created. Thrash created his realism of being a black male, whereas Kollwitz created her realism as a German woman. In the quest to create prints in social realism, Thrash created a new way to make prints, carborundum mezzotint. This printing technique allowed Thrash to create Boats at Night and Defense Worker. The black, white, and shades in between make both prints priceless prints. Whether used as social realism art, or government propaganda, both prints are useful. Bibliography Braff, Phyllis. AT Social Realism and the Imaginative in Printmaking. 23 Jul. 2000. The New York Times. Accessed 6 Aug. 2010. Online. Brown, Betty. Art and Mass Media, 2nd edition revised. New York, 2005. Calo, Mary Ann. American Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Sep., 1999), pp. 580-621. Literature (Autumn, 1968). Larson, Cedric. The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1939), pp. 491-496. Mullen, Bill. Popular fronts: Chicago and African-American cultural politics, 1935-46. New York: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Patton, Sharon F. African-American Art (Oxford History of Art). 1 ed. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1998. Steele, Richard W. The Journal of American History, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jun., 1984), pp. 69-92. Read More