Skip to main content

Dignity vs. Despair: Dorothea Lange and Depression-Era Photographers, 1933-1941


The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
June 23 -  November 26, 2017

A new exhibition featuring works by some of the most well-known American photographers of the 1930s will be on display at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Dignity vs. Despair: Dorothea Lange and Depression-Era Photographers, 1933-1941 opens June 23 and includes iconic images by five photographers: Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, and Peter Sekaer. It is the first Depression-era exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins.

The Farm Security Administration, created in response to the Great Depression, provided loans to farmers, facilitated the removal of families from economically challenged cities for resettlement in rural communities, and formed camps for migrant workers.


“The themes of adversity and resilience in these photographs are some of the same themes running through contemporary life,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins. “With the downturn of the economy in 2008, many people found themselves facing increased hardship. These photographs help us better understand not only the strength of the human spirit in times of suffering, but also the remarkable power of social and documentary photography to shape public opinion and influence government decisions.”

In 1935, Roy Stryker, an economist from Colombia University, was given the difficult task of determining how to prepare pictorial documentation of rural areas and problems and present them to the American government and people. He assembled an initial team of five photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein. Marion Post Wolcott and Peter Sekaer worked for other government agencies.

“Many people dismiss these images as sad photographs, but I’ve never seen them that way,” said Jane L. Aspinwall, Associate Curator, Photography. “Roy Stryker didn’t see them that way either. He recognized in the photos a quiet human dignity, something that, as he described it, ‘transcends misery’ and reflects our ‘ability to endure.’”

The exhibition of 64 photographs is arranged thematically and geographically into three sections. The first section includes Lange’s images of urban hardship in San Francisco in 1933-38. The next section focuses on the South, an area hard hit by the Depression. The final section documents the plight of the migrant worker, most often located in California.


“It was an important watershed moment in the history of photography when the American government dispatched photographers to record the plight of the poor and the successes of federal programs,” said Aspinwall. “These photographs were meant to ‘show America to Americans’—to demonstrate that the government recognized their hardships and was working to relieve them.”
The exhibition draws heavily upon the photographers’ own words about their work, found in captions on the backs of the photos, artists’ field notes, and excerpts from interviews. These materials expand the exhibition beyond the subject matter and allow viewers a greater understanding of each photographer’s point of view.

To highlight the museum’s extensive holding of Dorothea Lange’s work, her photographs—including the highly recognizable Migrant Mother—make up more than half of the photos in the exhibition. Migrant Mother, one of the most requested photos by visitors, was featured on the PBS program Antiques Roadshow in 2013. Dignity vs. Despair will be on view until November 26.



Peter Sekaer, American, born Denmark (1901–1950). Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1936. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 × 9 3/8 inches. Gift of the Hall Family Foundation, 2016.75.260.




Dorothea Lange, American (1895–1965). Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, March 1936. Gelatin silver print (printed ca. 1960), 13 3/8 x 10 1/4 inches. Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2005.27.305.




Arthur Rothstein, American (1915–1985). Farmer and sons in dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, April 1936. Gelatin silver print, 21 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches. Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2005.27.4330.




Marion Post Wolcott – Pahokee Hotel, migrant vegetable pickers’ quarters, near Homestead, Florida, February 1941. Gelatin silver print, 10 3/16 x 13 1/2 inches. Gift of Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2005.27.4533
 




Peter Sekaer, American, born Denmark (1901–1950). Tenements ca. 1936

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Món ăn làm đẹp da, chống nếp nhăn, trị nám da hiệu quả nhất

Yến sào hầm nước dừa, hạt sen -Công dụng: Nhuận phổi ngưng ho, giảm béo, trắng da, trị nám da hiệu quả. -Nguyên tố vi lượng: Calci, acid amin, chất nhựa. Protein trong yến sào tự nhiên chiếm khoảng 50%, thành phần còn lại là calci, acid amin, sulfor. Vậy làm sao hằng ngày chúng ta có thể hấp thu được lượng sữa uống? Điều quan trọng là, trong yến sào có chứa phân tử sinh trưởng biểu bì và hormon thúc đẩy quá trình phân chia tế bào, thúc đẩy sự tái tạo mới, tăng cường sức đề kháng cho cớ thể, khôi phục nguyên tố, cho bạn một làn da trắng và mịn màng. -Nguyên liệu: Yến sào 30g, nước dừa 200ml, đường phèn, hạt sen 60g. -Cách làm: 1. Yến sào ngâm vào nước khoảng 4 giờ, loại bỏ tạp chất, lông vụn, rửa sạch, để ráo nước, chuẩn bị sẵn. Hạt sen ngâm mềm, loại bỏ tim, để sẵn. 2. Bỏ đường phèn vào 600ml nước để sooim cho đường tan ra, sau đó cho yến sào và hạt sen vào, đậy nắp lại, chưng cách thủy khoảng 1 giờ 30 phút, rồi cho nước dừa vào nấu 15 phút. -Mẹo nhỏ: 1. Yến...

Turner and the Sun

The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre 5 August – 15 October 2017, Sainsbury Gallery, Willis Museum, Basingstoke 21 October – 16  December 2017,    In the weeks prior to his death, J.M.W. Turner is said to have declared (to John Ruskin) ‘ The Sun is God’ –  what he meant by this, no-one really knows, but what is not in any doubt is the central role that the sun played in Turner’s lifelong obsession with light and how to paint it. Turner and the Sun , an exhibition curated by Hampshire Cultural Trust, will be the first ever to be devoted solely to the artist’s lifelong obsession with the sun. Whether it is the soft light of dawn, the uncompromising brilliance of midday or the technicolour vibrancy of sunset, his light-drenched landscapes bear testimony to the central role that the sun assumed in Turner’s art. Through twelve generous loans from Tate Britain – the majority of which are rarely on public display – this focused exhibition...

Sotheby's IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART 14 November 2017 Updated

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE  Auction 14 November 2017  Works from the Mellon Family Collection are led by    Claude Monet’s Champ d’iris à Giverny, painted in 1887 during a period of respite from the artist’s extensive travels in Holland, Brittany and, finally, his newly- established permanent studio at Giverny (estimate $3/5 million) . The idyllic , pastoral subject matter of this work encapsulates the central focus of Monet’s oeuvre toward the end of the 19 th century, when he divorced himself from painting urban scenes of Paris and devoted himself fully to his beloved countryside in Giverny.  The present work was acquired by the Mellons in 1953 and has remained in the family’s collection since .  Jeanne dite Cocotte, et Ludovic Rodolphe Pissarro sur un tapis is one of the remarkable compositions in which Camille Pissarro turns his at ention to his own family as the subject for his art (estimate $800,000/1.2 million...