Press Release
Press Contact:
Anabeth Guthrie
(202) 842-6804
a-guthrie@nga.gov
Chief Press Officer
Deborah Ziska
ds-ziska@nga.gov
(202) 842-6353
Release Date: February 14, 2008
Image caption:
Robert Frank
Parade – Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955
gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the artist
© Robert Frank, from The Americans
(click here to order this image)
Washington, DC—In 2009 the National Gallery of Art, Washington, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of renowned photographer Robert Frank's The Americans with an exhibition that will examine both the construction of the book and the photographs themselves. Robert Frank (b. 1924) published this seminal work in 1958/1959, and it remains the single most important book of photographs published since World War II. The exhibition is organized by and will premiere at the National Gallery of Art from January 18 through April 26, 2009. It will be on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from May 17 through August 23 and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 20 through December 27, 2009.
The National Gallery of Art is co-publisher with Steidl of
the 50th anniversary edition of The Americans. Including
83 photographs made in 1955 and 1956 while Frank was traveling around the United
States on a Guggenheim fellowship, the book looked beneath the surface of American
life, scrutinizing the culture with an honest but passionate vision to reveal
a profound sense of alienation, angst, and loneliness. Frank's style—seemingly
loose, casual compositions, with often rough, blurred, out-of-focus foregrounds
and tilted horizons—proved to be just as controversial and influential
as his subject matter. More an ode or a poem than a literal document, The
Americans has continued to be a profound inspiration to photographers
around the world.
The exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans" is
divided into four parts. The first section examines the roots of The
Americans not only in Frank's earlier hand-made books, including Peru (1949),
and Black, White, and Things (1952), but also in other sequences
of photographs he made at this time, such as People You Don't See (1952).
The second section examines the actual making of the photographs and the layout
of the book by presenting many of the vintage contact sheets and work prints
that Frank made as he selected the photographs and sequenced the book. It also
includes letters written by Frank to Walker Evans, Jack Kerouac, and others
about his work on the project. The third section presents all 83 photographs
from the publication in vintage prints and in the order Frank constructed in
the book. The fourth section addresses the subsequent fame this publication
has had and its impact on the artist himself. In recent years several exhibitions
have been devoted to Frank's art, but none has provided the in-depth examination
of The Americans proposed here.
Sarah Greenough, senior curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art, is organizing the exhibition. Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans" will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with essays by Greenough and other leading scholars in the field. The catalogue is published with the assistance of The Getty Foundation.
General Information
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times
free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd
and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through
Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information
call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD)
at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.
Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon
entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and
located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented
at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray
screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances.
For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried
into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot
be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in
the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by
the Gallery or its checkrooms.
For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:
Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov
Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov
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National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC