8. Funeral Cortege, End of An Era in a Small Valley To~m,California. 1938 (21) p.23 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART 11WEST 53 STREET.NEW YORK 19. N. Y. TELEPHONE:CIRCLE 5·8900 CHECKLIST DORarHEA LANGE January 24 - March 27, 1966 Corridor - North Wall 1. Egyptian Village. 1963 (1) p.l02 2. Dorothea Lange's Mother (11) 3. Venezuelan Hospital. 1960 (18) 4. HopiIndian, Net'!Mexico. c. 1923 (5) p.15 5. 11a Burnham, Conroy, Arkansas. 1938 (13) 6. AndrewFuruseth, SanFrancisco. 1934 (8) p, 2l 7. Young Migratory Cotton Picker, Casa Grande, Arizona. 1940 (20) p.30 9. Gunlock, Utah. 19.~3 (6a) Irish Child, CountyClare, Ireland. 1954 (7) p.86 Introductory Corridor - South Wall Vietnamese Mother. 1958 (16) Texas Panhandle. 1938 (15) p.39 Girl and "Ghurch, Utah. 1953 (6b) Utah Farmer. 1953 (17) l1exican-American, San Francisco. 1928 (21b) p.16 Adele Raas, San Francisco. c. 1920 (12) p. 17 County Clare, Ireland. 1954 (10) YoungWidow, Venezuela. 1960 (14) Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona. 1940 (BAE) (218) p.28 Gunlock, Utah. 1953 (3) 21. Rebecca Dixon, Sausalito. 1954 (2) p.68 SouthRoom- NewCalifornia Time has edited these phot.ograp'is , made over a span of t\>l6nty-five years. They are a product of the files. Some~leremade at random, by instinct, waiting on streetcorners or during expeditions to the supermarket. Somewere madeon the fringes of assignments. Sone were madebet~Jeenbouts of illness, to test whether the eye remained true and the hand steady. A photographer t s files are in a sense his autobiography. More resides there than he is awareof. 'Doc"\l.IOO.ntation does not necessarily depend upon conscious themes. It can gro'Wa1.mos't. of itself, depending upon the photographer's instinct and interests. As fragmentary and incomplete as the archeologist I s potsherds, it can be not less telling. Dorothea Lange MoMAExh_0789_MasterChecklist
Transcript
8. Funeral Cortege, End of An Era in a Small Valley To~m,California. 1938 (21)p.23
THEMUSEUM OF MODERN ART11 WEST 53 STREET.NEW YORK 19. N. Y.TELEPHONE:CIRCLE 5·8900
CHECKLIST
DORarHEALANGE
January 24 - March 27, 1966
Corridor - North Wall
1. Egyptian Village. 1963 (1) p.l02
2. Dorothea Lange's Mother (11)
3. Venezuelan Hospital. 1960 (18)
4. Hopi Indian, Net'!Mexico. c. 1923 (5) p.15
5. 11a Burnham, Conroy, Arkansas. 1938 (13)
6. AndrewFuruseth, San Francisco. 1934 (8) p, 2l
7. Young Migratory Cotton Picker, Casa Grande, Arizona. 1940 (20) p.30
Time has edited these phot.ograp'is , made over a span of t\>l6nty-fiveyears. They are a product of the files. Some~lere made at random,by instinct, waiting on streetcorners or during expeditions to thesupermarket. Somewere made on the fringes of assignments. Sonewere made bet~Jeenbouts of illness, to test whether the eye remainedtrue and the hand steady.
A photographer t s files are in a sense his autobiography. Moreresides there than he is awareof. 'Doc"\l.IOO.ntationdoes not necessarilydepend upon conscious themes. It can gro'Wa1.mos't.of itself, dependingupon the photographer's instinct and interests. As fragmentary andincomplete as the archeologist Is potsherds, it can be not less telling.
Dorothea Lange
MoM
AExh_0789_MasterChecklist
DORCYrIEAUNClE - January 24 - }larch 27, 1966
Introductory Wall Label
The work oi' Dorothea Lange was directed not toward esthetic delight, buttoward social relevance. Beauty for her was not a goal, but a proof ofsuccess--a demonstration that sonabhxngof importance had bee~ clearly seenand graphically fixed. A beautiful picture, because o~ its r-Lght.ness ,demandedcontemplation, and that was the success she mshed.
Yet this success depended on her art--on the alertness and ~ine~ss ofher sensibility. Langewas by choice a social observer, and by Lnstdnct anartist. In the best of her photographs the demands of these two commitlOOntsare reconciled and resolved; the imageand its commentare inseparable.
In the early lthirties Lange turned from the categorical and solvableproblems of studio portraiture toward the limitless problem of photographingthe wide unposable world.
Her sitters had been those whocameto her, and whopaid for her serv-ices. In strife-ridden San Francisco of the early Depression she recognizedthat the essential life of the time was being lived on the streets, by thosewhocould not and wouldnot blV her pictures. Unassigned and unsponsored,without knowing what function her photographs :night serve, but supported byher need to see life and understa.nd it, she took her caner-a into the centerof crisis, and photographed sidewalk orators, soup kitchens, strikers ontheir pickets, and homeless, 'aimless, despairing men,
others did this also. l-lhat distinguished LangeIs work was a challengingintelligence and an artist's vision. Her intelligence allowed her to bypassthe exceptional--the roorely news.lorthy-and discover the typical. Her artgave to her observation an irreducible simplicity, the eloquence ofinevitability.
Lange's work created its own format of function. In 1934 the economistPaul Taylor saw her pictures, and recognized the contribution that such pho-tography could maketo social research and education. Hehired Lange toassist in his study of California migrant workers. The success of thisproject was an influential factor in the establishlOOnt in 1935 of the photo-graphic unit of the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm SecurityAdministration). Langewas an original nember-of this group, which, under'the direction of RoyE. Stryker, first suggested the full potentiels ofdocumentary photography as a cultural force--capable of educating the mindsand the sensibilitles:.of a nation.'
During the following years Langeworked for the FarmSecurity Adminis-tration and other governmentagencies, and also independently, pursuina herownsense of what must be observed and understood. In 1945 .rter photo-graphing the U~ited Nat~ons Conference for the Department or State, Langewas stricken mth the fust of a succession of serious illness s which weto fill much of her last twenty years. In the periods of relative he Iththat !lere. allowed her, she photographed briefly in Ireland, in Asia. in SouthArooTlca,an Egypt; and in the hours that could be borroved from the normalpattern of her life she again photographed California She did not ottem~o repeat h';lr earlier pictures. The central fact was nownot depressionut prosper-Ley, so she photographed the mushrooming population and i smoney: . its new houses and highways and automobiles and marketplaces andrecreat Ions •
This latter workshe considered not a docUl1Bntbut tl-e skatch for adocurrent. The record of the 'sixties that she wanted to make was beyondthe reach of one photographer. During the last two years of her life sheworked to define the conditions under which a new docUlMntary unit mightprovide for this generation a service para1.1.e1.to the\:. perforned thirtyyears a\!',oby the photogra-p'ners of the "'arm Security ~dm1ro.stration.
John S'loarko'W'ski
22. Sunlit Oak c. 1957 (213)
23. First Born, Berkeley. ~952 (224) p.74(two pictures above hung on title pane~)
- --------------
MoM
AExh_0789_MasterChecklist
Dorothea Lange - Pg, 3
South Room- New C,alifornia continued
1 C t T '...938 (24) p.2424. Tractored Out, Chi dress oun y, exas ,
I am trying here to say somethingabout the despised, the defeated,the a.Idennted,About death and disaster.About the wounded, the crippled,the helpless, the rootless,the dislocated.About duress and trouble.About finality.About the last ditch.
Dorothea Lange
75. White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco. 1933 (84) p.20
