Robert Motherwell no number
1962
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
contact sheet
Dimensions
overall: 25.4 x 20.5 cm (10 x 8 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1990.28.3283
Art Historical Context
In 1962, renowned photographer Robert Frank captured this intimate contact sheet titled *Robert Motherwell no number featuring the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. Measuring 25.4 x .5 cm, this gelatin silver print from Frank's personal collection—now a gift to the National Gallery of Artoffers a rare glimpse into raw, unfiltered process of mid-century photography. Contact sheets like this one are proof prints made directly from negatives, preserving sequences of exposures in their original, unedited form. Frank, celebrated for his groundbreaking 1958 photobook *The Americans*...
About the Artist
Robert Frank
Robert Frank (1924-2019) was a Swiss-American photographer and documentary filmmaker whose revolutionary approach to documentary photography fundamentally transformed the medium and influenced generations of artists. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 9, 1924, to a middle-class Jewish family, Frank began his photographic apprenticeship in 1941, working with commercial photographers before im...