Robert Frank - Photographs New York Wednesday, April 6, 2022 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    The artist to Werner Zryd, Zurich
    Private Collection, Zurich, 1981

  • Literature

    Galassi, Robert Frank: In America, p. 121
    Tate Modern, Story Lines, p. 111

  • Catalogue Essay

    This photograph was originally in the collection of Werner Zryd, a Swiss graphic designer with a long association with Robert Frank. Zryd was the designer of Frank’s 1952 maquette, Black White and Things. Illustrated with actual photographs, and produced in an edition of only 3, Black White and Things represented a deepening of Frank’s understanding of presenting images in a sequence and is a direct precursor to his masterwork The Americans produced later in the decade.

  • Artist Biography

    Robert Frank

    Swiss • 1924

    As 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.

    View More Works

195

Chicago

1956
Gelatin silver print, likely an early print.
13 3/4 x 9 1/4 in. (34.9 x 23.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated in ink in the margin; a Werner Zryd, Zurich, collection stamp on the verso.

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $20,160

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com


Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 6 April 2022