Art. About.Town.: Robert Frank: The Americans

9.22.2009

Robert Frank: The Americans

Here’s an analogy to start the day: Robert Frank is to photos what Jack Kerouac is to words. In the 1950’s, Frank hit the open road to document America. What he came up with was absolute realism; what he came up with was an honest depiction of the world around him; what he came up with was The Americans.

Opening today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, an extensive exhibit of the black & white photos that Frank published in 1959. Fifty years on we are able to slip back in time, get a glimpse of the “cool and colorful stares” (The New Yorker) that permeate his subjects—and stare back.