Black in the Public Domain

Black in the Public Domain is a growing visual archive of Black artists whose work exists in the public domain or open-access museum collections. Each post centers the artwork as both aesthetic object and historical trace.

[blackinthepublicdomain]

Dox Thrash, Linda, ca 1940-41 - Purchase Art Print

Born in 1893 in Griffin, Georgia, Dox Thrash left his home at the age of fifteen in search of work up North. Settling into Chicago, Thrash worked as an elevator operator to fund his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago until his studies were cut short by the first World War, in which he served for a year as a member of the famous all-black 92nd Division “Buffalo Soldiers.""

Eventually, Thrash moved to Philadelphia to join the WPA, government-sponsored Philadelphia Fine Print Workshop. It was there that he and two others invented the carborundum mezzotint, then regarded as the first new printmaking method in more than 100 years. This process allowed him to create stunning and deeply contrasted portraits of Black sitters, gaining him praise from prominent African-American intellectuals of the time, such as Alain Locke and W. E. B. Dubois.

Fun fact: For years, Dox Thrash shared a studio with fellow Works Progress Artist and member of the Tra and Pyramid Clubs, Samuel Joseph Brown, whose work can also be found on Black in the Public Domain.

Dox Thrash, Linda, ca. 1940–41. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain (Open Access). https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/366024

[blackinthepublicdomain]

Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr., Abstraction #1, c. 1938. - Purchase Art Print

Born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1907, Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr. and his family moved to Philadelphia in 1917, where he later became integral part of the city's cultural fabric. An accomplished watercolorist, printmaker, painter, and educator, Brown studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. He went on to earn the equivalent of a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and, afterwards, taught art in Philadelphia public schools for more than three decades. Brown became an integral part of his Philadelphia arts community, leading the Tra Club, an informal association of African American artists in the city, and becoming an early member of the Pyramid Club, a center focused on African American life and culture in Philadelphia. Fun fact: For years, Samuel Joseph Brown shared a studio with fellow Works Progress Artist and member of the Tra and Pyramid Clubs, Dox Thrash, whose work can also be found on Black in the Public Domain. "Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr., Abstraction #1, c. 1938. Saint Louis Art Museum. Public Domain. https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/20030/"