No. 188: Nicholas Lemann, Tamara Schenkenberg

Episode No. 188 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features historian and journalist Nicholas Lemann and curator Tamara Schenkenberg.

Lemann discusses “One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Works,” which is on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York through September 7. The exhibition was curated by Leah Dickerman. It shows all sixty panels of Lawrence’s landmark “Migration Series.” Half of the panels are in MoMA’s own collection; the other half are held by The Phillips Collection. Lemann’s 1991 “The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America,” was the first landmark history of the migration that Lawrence chronicled. Lemann’s book won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for history and the Sidney Hillman Prize.

Lemann is a journalism professor and the dean emeritus of the faculty of journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and occasionally contributes to The New York Review of Books.

Images that Lemann and host Tyler Green discuss on this week’s program are below. Lawrence’s entire “Migration Series” is viewable at MoMA’s exhibition micro-site.

On the second segment, Pulitzer Arts Foundation curator Tamara Schenkenberg provides an update on Fred Sandback’s Untitled (64 Three-Part Pieces). It is on view at the museum through September 12. Sandback created the work, which has only been installed once before, in Munich in 1975, to have 64 different possible permutations. With Sandback’s idea in mind, the Pulitzer will realize one of those permutations each week over the course of the exhibition.

Air date: June 11, 2015.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 7 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: The Negro, who had been part of the soil for many years, was now going into and living a new life in urban centers. 1993 caption: The migrant, whose life had been rural and nurtured by the earth, was now moving to urban life dependent on industrial machinery.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 7 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: The Negro, who had been part of the soil for many years, was now going into and living a new life in urban centers.
1993 caption: The migrant, whose life had been rural and nurtured by the earth, was now moving to urban life dependent on industrial machinery.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 20 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: The migration was spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the planter. 1993 caption: Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 20 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: The migration was spurred on by the treatment of the tenant farmers by the planter.
1993 caption: Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 20 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: In many of the communities the Negro press was read continually because of its attitude and its encouragement of the movement. 1993 caption: In many of the communities the Black press was read with great interest. It encouraged the movement.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 20 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: In many of the communities the Negro press was read continually because of its attitude and its encouragement of the movement.
1993 caption: In many of the communities the Black press was read with great interest. It encouraged the movement.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 33 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North. 1993 caption: Letters from relatives in the North told of the better life there.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 33 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.
1993 caption: Letters from relatives in the North told of the better life there.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 36 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: They arrived in great numbers into Chicago, the gateway of the West. 1993 caption: Migrants arrived in Chicago, the gateway to the West.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 36 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: They arrived in great numbers into Chicago, the gateway of the West.
1993 caption: Migrants arrived in Chicago, the gateway to the West.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 51 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: In many cities in the North where the Negroes had been overcrowded in their own living quarters they attempted to spread out. This resulted in many of the race riots and the bombings of Negro homes. 1993 caption: African Americans seeking to find better housing attempted to move into new areas. This resulted in the bombing of their new homes.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 51 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: In many cities in the North where the Negroes had been overcrowded in their own living quarters they attempted to spread out. This resulted in many of the race riots and the bombings of Negro homes.
1993 caption: African Americans seeking to find better housing attempted to move into new areas. This resulted in the bombing of their new homes.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 53 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: The Negroes who had been North for quite some time met their fellowmen with disgust and aloofness. 1993 caption: African Americans, long-time residents of northern cities, met the migrants with aloofness and disdain.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 53 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: The Negroes who had been North for quite some time met their fellowmen with disgust and aloofness.
1993 caption: African Americans, long-time residents of northern cities, met the migrants with aloofness and disdain.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 59 from "The Migration Series," 1941. 1941 caption: In the North the Negro had freedom to vote. 1993 caption: In the North they had the freedom to vote.

Jacob Lawrence, Panel 59 from “The Migration Series,” 1941.
1941 caption: In the North the Negro had freedom to vote.
1993 caption: In the North they had the freedom to vote.

Installation view of Fred Sandback 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 20], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

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Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

Installation view of Fred Sandback, 64 Three-part Pieces [Permutation No. 14], Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015.

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