Willem de Kooning 1 1961

Robert Frank captured this photographic work, Willem de Kooning 1, using gelatin silver print. It is reminiscent of some of Sol LeWitt's photographic series. Here, the process is the content, the making is the subject. The images show the surface, documenting the act of viewing De Kooning's work. The gray scale contributes a kind of humble honesty. There is an almost frantic rhythm to the composition. The film strip is cut off at the bottom. This is how it is, we seem to hear Frank say. The eye is given a clear path to follow the sequence. The black border contrasts with the shades of gray, highlighting the texture of the gelatin print. You can almost feel the artist, Robert Frank, wrestling with the question of how to capture the depth and complexity of de Kooning’s paintings. Frank, like de Kooning, invites us to value the art-making process itself.