The Museum of Modern Art
Robert Frank
American, born Switzerland.1924–2019
late 1950s
A gelatin-silver black-and-white photograph in which Robert Frank casually records visitors at the Museum of Modern Art to reveal the quiet, uneasy choreography of looking and being looked at.
What strikes you is the grainy, high-contrast immediacy: half-turned figures and a bold abstract painting collide in the frame, giving the scene a cinematic, slightly off-kilter sense of social distance and attention.
Frank’s informal, observational approach helped shift documentary photography from formal reportage to a personal, streetwise practice that emphasized fleeting, ambiguous moments and psychological nuance.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
8 3/16 × 12 3/8" (20.8 × 31.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
280.2003
Palette
Exhibitions
