Social Portraits

The Haggerty Museum of Art opens a pair of noteworthy exhibitions over the next few weeks. Starting Jan. 31, Don Doll showcases his award-winning photography; the following week, 18th-century painter William Hogarth’s satirical engravings are revealed. Though centuries apart, each artist demonstrates a creative genius through insightful images of the surrounding world.

“The Grandeur of God” presents 60 digitally reproduced photographs by Doll, a Milwaukee native and a Jesuit priest. This Marquette University alumnus was honored with the nationally renowned 1997 Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism, as well as the 2006 Artist of the Year award in Nebraska. He is currently a professor at Creighton University in Omaha.

Doll’s prints have graced the pages of National Geographic and have given photographic perspective to his unique experiences in rural America and abroad. His graphic pictures illustrate global concerns, including refugees in Uganda, land-mine victims in Angola and tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka.

“The exhibit in Milwaukee depicts these causes he believes in,” says Mary Dornfeld, communication assistant for the Haggerty. “Doll displays the crisis of a country without making it look too pretty.” Other photographic portraits capture Doll’s first assignments with the Lakota Indians on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and landscapes along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Doll gives a gallery talk about his life’s work on opening night, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m.,

followed by a reception. On Feb. 7, the Haggerty unveils pieces from its permanent collection in “William Hogarth: British Satirical Prints.” These engravings humorously depict the virtues and vices of English society during the early 1700s, and have been described as the precursors to the comic strip.