September 30, 2022 through January 15, 2023
From the anonymous to the celebrity and from the everyday to era-defining events such as the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights Movement, visit an exhibition that captures the full spectrum of the human experience. Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder is a riveting exploration of photography as it engages the human spirit.
Gordon Parks (United States, 1912–2006), American Gothic (Portrait of Ella Watson), Washington, DC, 1942, gelatin silver print, 13 x 9 1/8 inches. Promised Gift from the Judy Glickman Lauder Collection, 3.2016.8. Image courtesy Luc Demers. Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation
With approximately 150 photographs by 70 artists, the exhibition is drawn entirely from the collection of Judy Glickman Lauder—photographer, collector, humanitarian, advocate, philanthropist, and community builder. Presence creates a dialogue among an incredible array of photographs by some of the most beloved and influential practitioners of the 20th century, including Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, Gordon Parks, and James Van Der Zee. It also includes photographs by critical contributors to the medium’s history, such as Irving Bennett Ellis, Graciela Iturbide, Lotte Jacobi, Alma Lavenson, and Glickman Lauder, the collector herself. Through compassion and wonder, Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder immediately stands out as one of the most humanistic and affecting exhibitions of 2022.
The exhibition marks Judy Glickman Lauder’s promised gift of more than 600 works of art to the museum, which has immediately transformed the PMA’s collection. With incredible strengths in Pictorialism, modernism, landscapes, fashion work, street photography, and much, much more, the Judy Glickman Lauder Collection will be the foundation of photography installations for years to come. The collector’s lifelong love of photography and devotion to Maine have combined in this landmark gift.
Organized by Dr. Anjuli Lebowitz, the inaugural Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography, the exhibition will open at the Portland Museum of Art and travel to additional venues through 2023.
A companion publication, also entitled Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder, commemorates Glickman Lauder’s generosity to the PMA. Published by Aperture and edited by Chris Boot, the book includes approximately 150 illustrations with Glickman Lauder’s reflections on her life in photography, an introduction by Mark Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art, and essays by Dr. Anjuli Lebowitz, the Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography, and Adam Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Special thank you to Judy Glickman Lauder for her dedication to the Portland Museum of Art and for sharing her incredible collection with our visitors.