No. 632: Dorothea Lange portraits, William Blake

Episode No. 632 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Philip Brookman and Julian Brooks.

Brookman is the curator of “Dorothea Lange: Seeing People,” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition presents Lange’s decades-long portraiture practice in over 100 photographs, pictures that range from the Great Depression through the 1960s. “Seeing People” is on view through March 31, 2024. The exhibition catalogue was published by the NGA in association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $43-51.

With Edina Adam, Brooks is the co-curator of “William Blake: Visionary,” at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Blake was a printmaker and painter who built an unconventional, fantastical, often narrative world view that he presented across both poetry and art. The presentation includes a colored copy of Blake’s illuminated book America a Prophecy, a mindfully careful telling of the story of the American Revolution. “Blake” is at the Getty through January 14, 2024. The Getty-published exhibition catalogue is available from Bookshop and Amazon for $29-33.

For the 16 plates of Blake’s Milton a Poem, 1804-about 1811, see The William Blake Archive.

Air date: December 14, 2023.

Dorothea Lange, White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, California, 1933.

Dorothea Lange, Man at Microphone, May Day Demonstration, San Francisco, California, 1934.

Dorothea Lange, May Day, San Francisco, California, 1934.

Dorothea Lange, Hopi Man, Arizona, 1923.

Dorothea Lange, Maynard and Dan Dixon, 1930.

Dorothea Lange, Child Living in Oklahoma City Shacktown, 1936.

Dorothea Lange, Children of the Weill Public School Shown in a Flag Pledge Ceremony, San Francisco, California, April 1942/ca. 1965.

Dorothea Lange, Korean Child, 1958.

Dorothea Lange, Self-Portrait in Window, Saint George, Utah, 1953.

Dorothea Lange, Edison, Kern County, California. Young migratory mother, originally from Texas. On the day before the photograph was made, she and her husband traveled 35 miles each way to pick peas. They worked 5 hours each and together earned $2.25. They have two young children…Live in auto camp., April 11, 1940/1950s.