Upward Procession

DOROTHY MORANG, 1906-1994

Born in Richmond, Maine, Dorothy Morang arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1937 from Maine because of the need for her husband, Alfred Morang, to find a high, dry climate for his health. To that point, Dorothy had no formal art education, but in Santa Fe she took lessons from Ray Jonson.

In 1940, she joined the Federal Art Project* under the supervision of Vernon Hunter. To qualify, she had to pass a painting test, and she succeeded with her submission of a portrait from photographs of Archbishop Lamy. In the Project, she was transferred to help tint maps at the National Park Service, and then served as secretary to Vernon Hunter.

When her work with the WPA was discontinued, she went to work for the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, first as a secretary and then in 1945 as Curator of the Art Gallery and then for many years as Curator of Fine Arts in charge of the collection.

She also continued painting, studying dynamic symmetry* with Emil Bisttram and developing an abstract style of her own.

Source: Oral history interview by Sylvia Loomis with Dorothy Morang, 1964 Dec. 3, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.