Lecture with Roundtable-Discussion // Sarah Meister - “Migrant Mother”: Dorothea Lange and an Iconic Image’s 90th Birthday
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Wann
von 19:00 bis 20:00
Wo
In March 1936 Dorothea Lange made what is arguably the most well-known photograph in the world. Yet despite its ubiquity – and its popularity – decades passed before the most basic facts of its creation were known, and even those were often contested. Drawing from her experience writing a book about this singular image for The Museum of Modern Art, Sarah Meister will reflect on its ninety-year history and its continued significance today and subsequently engage in a discussion with scholars and museum curators from Munich.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Sarah Meister is Executive Director of Aperture, following more than twenty-five years at The Museum of Modern Art. She is leading efforts to move this storied nonprofit publisher to a new permanent home in Manhattan (anticipated mid-2026). As a curator, Meister’s most recent exhibitions include ”Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter” (2025), ”Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography” (2021); and ”Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures” (2020). Her publications have considered Gordon Parks (2020) Frances Benjamin Johnston (2019), the 1967 MoMA exhibition ”New Documents” (2017), Josef Albers (2016), Bill Brandt (2013), and many more.
In Conversation with
- Franziska Lampe, Deputy Head Photothek, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte
- Sonja Palade, Research Fellow of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation, Bavarian State Painting Collections
- Kerstin Schmidt, BAA Director & Chair of American Literary History at LMU Munich
Moderator: Dominik Brabant, Deputy Director, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte
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Registration:
Admission is free. Please register via https://eveeno.com/325068296
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The evening with Sarah Meister launches the event series “The Eye of the Camera: Art, Politics, and Perception in American Photography,” which is jointly organized by the Bavarian American Academy, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, and the Amerika Institut at LMU Munich. | Represented by Dominik Brabant, Deputy Director of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, and Kerstin Schmidt, Professor of North American Literature at the Amerika-Institut of LMU Munich and Director of the Bavarian America Academy (BAA).
[Caption: Florence Thompson with her children in “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange (1936 | Public Domain)]