Thaddeus Mosley: African American Sculptor

by David Levering Lewis

Thaddeus Mosley has spent his adult life in Pittsburgh, working for years as a postal carrier to support his family and his art. He worked as a photojournalist for the Pittsburgh Courier and attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he discovered the strength and variety of African art. He began carving after seeing an exhibition of bird and fish sculptures at Kaufmann's department store in the 1950s.In 1968 Mosley had his first one-man exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art; more exhibitions and awards followed. His Georgia Gate #1 was purchased for the permanent collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in 1976, and in 1978 Mosley was named Artist of the Year at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. The Phoenix, perhaps Mosley's best-known piece in Pittsburgh, sits at the corner of Centre Avenue and Dinwiddie in the Hill District. Carved in 1978 from a fourteen-foot cedar tree trunk, it was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Thaddeus Mosley carves in stone and wood, mostly cherry, sycamore, and walnut, but his work has national and international importance beyond its obvious powerful abstraction and its strong sense of materials. Thaddeus Mosley: African-American Sculptor chronicles his work and marks his 1997 exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

"I was profoundly moved by Mr. Lewis's presentation of Mr. Mosley's life and sculptural works. Thaddeus Mosley is a significant American sculptor of African American descent. He has evolved a powerful body of sculptural work through the confluence of his exposure to traditional African sculpture, the works of European art (Brancusi), and the Asian American sculptor Noguchi. Through this process he hasbecome a contributor to the African American cultural continuum". Deborah Willis, Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution

96 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

David Levering Lewis is the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at New York University.