Violin on bench, CBS TV studio--Burbank, California
1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet: 25.1 x 20.2 cm (9 7/8 x 7 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert Frank Collection, Gift of Robert Frank
Accession Number
1990.28.630
Art Historical Context
In the mid-1950s, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank captured the pulse of post-World War II America during his Guggenheim Fellowship-funded road trip, which culminated in his groundbreaking 1959 book *The Americans*.Violin on Bench, CBS TV Studio—Burbank, California* (1956) is a poignant example from this series. Shot in the heart of Hollywood's expanding television industry, the image depicts a lone violin resting on a bench amid the impersonal bustle of a CBS studio. This gelatin silver print, measuring just under 10 by 8 inches, embodies Frank's signature style: candid, unposed snapshots...
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...