Robert Frank
Mary, Provincetown

Mary, Provincetown

© The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation

Mary, Provincetown
Mary, Provincetown
ArtistAmerican, born Switzerland, 1924–2019
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Mary, Provincetown
Date1958
PlaceProvincetown, Massachusetts, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 1/16 × 8 5/8 in. (33.1 × 21.8 cm)
Sheet: 14 1/16 × 10 15/16 in. (35.7 × 27.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of P/K Associates
Object number84.1001
Non exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionAttracted to the openness of the snapshot, artists in the 1950s began to draw on qualities of the vernacular aesthetic that gave them license to break basic rules of photographic practice. Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, following others like Robert Frank, explored cities and traveled the country with handheld cameras. Their style of street photography exploited the haphazard or generic accidents of the amateur—blurred or out-of-focus imagery, off-kilter horizon lines, awkward cropping, double exposure, and the jarring inclusion of their own shadow. Frank inserted himself into a picture of his wife Mary at the beach, obscuring her face with his own shadow.
ProvenanceP/K Associates, New York; given to MFAH, 1984.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited: "Robert Frank: A Retrospective from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Cameron Foundation Gallery, July 14 - October 14, 2001.

“In A Snap: The Art of Vernacular Photography,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 12, 2014–February 22, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
bottom left below image in ink " Mary 1961 "
verso middle right in pencil " 7- 90 "
bottom right below image in ink " R. Frank "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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