56
Robert Frank
Rodeo - New York City
- Estimate
- $30,000 - 50,000
$40,000
Lot Details
Gelatin silver print, printed 1977.
1954
12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (31.1 x 21 cm)
Signed, titled 'NYC' and dated '1955' in ink in the margin; 'Robert Frank Archive' stamp on the verso.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
As Frank traveled the country taking photographs ultimately included in The Americans, he focused on both quotidian and archetypal aspects of the culture. Cowboys are among the most enduring and distinctly American archetypes, and they appear in several of the book’s images. Frank defies our expectations for this western icon in Rodeo, New York City, in which its subject laconically strikes a classic pose and lights a cigarette on the busy streets of Manhattan.
Provenance
Literature
Robert Frank
Swiss | 1924As one of the leading visionaries of mid-century American photography, Robert Frank has created an indelible body of work, rich in insight and poignant in foresight. In his famed series The Americans, Frank travelled the United States, capturing the parade of characters, hierarchies and imbalances that conveyed his view of the great American social landscape.
Frank broke the mold of what was considered successful documentary photography with his "snapshot aesthetic." It is Frank's portrayal of the United States through grit and grain that once brought his work to the apex of criticism, but has now come to define the art of documentary photography.
Browse ArtistFrank broke the mold of what was considered successful documentary photography with his "snapshot aesthetic." It is Frank's portrayal of the United States through grit and grain that once brought his work to the apex of criticism, but has now come to define the art of documentary photography.