In 1955, Robert Frank began the series of photographs that would result in the publication of his seminal book, The Americans. His project was funded by a succession of modest grants from the Guggenheim Foundation. Born in Switzerland, Frank came to the United States with an outsider’s perspective. In his 1955 application to the Guggenheim Foundation he reasoned, 'It is fair to assume that when an observant American travels abroad his eye will see freshly; and that the reverse may be true when a European eye looks at the United States.'
For Americans raised on the sanitized imagery to be found in most picture magazines of the 1950s, The Americans was an abrupt shock. Frank’s depiction of the country was initially misunderstood and loudly criticized. His intent was far more complex and nuanced, and his images more deeply layered, than reviewers initially gave him credit for. Of these images he wrote, “I have been frequently accused of deliberately twisting subject matter to my point of view. Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of criticism. But criticism can come out of love” (U. S. Camera Annual, 1958).
“Three hustlers pose for the camera, seductive and gay on a dark New York City sidewalk. This is one of the few exultant pictures in the book.”
—Philip Brookman, CuratorNew York City appears as the 12th illustration in The Americans, within a sequence of images in which eyes figure prominently. It comes directly after Motorama—Los Angeles, in which the gazes of three boys seated in a fancy car create a triangulated compositional tension, and directly before Charleston, South Carolina, in which the eyes of the nurse and her charge underscore their socio-economic distance. New York City is one of the few photographs in The Americans in which all of the subjects acknowledge the camera directly and, more remarkably, do so in a playfully flirtatious way. As Frank authority and curator Philip Brookman observes, ‘This is one of the few exultant pictures in the book.’
Phillips is honored to present a selection of artwork from the collection of pioneering gallerists Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas. Proceeds from their outstanding collection will benefit the Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas Scholarship Fund at Yale University in memory of Thomas C. Mendenhall. Gene’s attendance at Yale in 1949 was made possible by a scholarship, and it was his and Dorothy’s intent that the sale of artwork from their estate would support scholars of the future.
Dorothy and Eugene Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s. Gene (1932-2011) and Dorothy (1928-2022) founded Prakapas Gallery at 19 East 71st Street, New York City, in 1976. The gallery quickly became known for its adventurous curatorial approach and for showing a diverse range of artists and media. The couple set a demanding pace for themselves, mounting a new exhibition every four weeks, and keeping an ever-changing array of painting, photography, and works-on-paper on the gallery walls. Photography, especially work connected to the Bauhaus, was a particular interest of the Prakapases, and the broad theme of European Modernism threaded its way through many of their shows. Operating on a shoestring budget, the couple sought out little-known artists and underrepresented aspects of well-known artists’ oeuvres for their exhibitions. Gallery favorites included László Moholy-Nagy, Fernand Léger, Willi Baumeister, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and Werner Mantz, among many others.
Dorothy Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s. Both Gene and Dorothy came to the art world after having pursued successful careers in other arenas. Gene worked in publishing after graduating Yale, served in the Navy, and later pursued graduate studies at Oxford, which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship. Dorothy was educated at City University of New York and the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked in the fashion industry. Together, they made Prakapas Gallery into a mecca for collectors on the hunt for material that could not be found elsewhere, the esoteric and the avant-garde across all media, selected and contextualized with intelligence and warmth.
“Galleries that are powered by a completely idiosyncratic taste and with no regard for current fashion do not always live long. So it is good to see from their 10th anniversary miscellany that Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas are just as quirky as ever they were.”
—John Russell, The New York TimesCondition Report
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Provenance
Robert Frank, Nova Scotia
Penn/Katz Associates, New York
Houk Friedman Gallery, New York, 1996Literature
The Americans, no. 12
Greenough, Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, p. 223
Frank, Robert Frank, pl. 36
Greenough and Brookman, Robert Frank: Moving Out, p. 179
Galassi, Robert Frank: In America, p. 78
Aperture, Robert Frank, p. 77
Rotzler, ‘Der Photograph Robert Frank, p. 13
Galassi, Walker Evans & Company, pl. 151
Tate Publishing, Cruel and Tender: The Real in the Twentieth Century Photograph, p. 107
The Museum of Modern Art, Walker Evans & Company, pl. 151Artist 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.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF EUGENE AND DOROTHY PRAKAPAS
235
New York City
1955
Gelatin silver print, printed 1960s.
16 1/2 x 12 in. (41.9 x 30.5 cm)
Signed and annotated 'NYC 1955' in ink on the reverse of the Masonite flush-mount.
Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000
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 9 October 2024
325
This lot is no longer available.
354
This lot is no longer available.
