Willem de Kooning 12 1961

Robert Frank created this photoprint, titled 'Willem de Kooning 12,’ using gelatin silver. This piece is an arrangement of black and white film strips; it's like a visual poem, fragmented and raw. You see the marks of the artist's hand – the cuts, the splices, the way the film is laid out. It's not just about the images captured, but the physical act of piecing them together. The grainy texture and stark contrast gives it this gritty, documentary feel. There is a sequence of faces in this array of images and it tells a story that feels incomplete, urging you to fill in the gaps. Frank’s work shares that spirit of experimentation and improvisation I admire in the work of artists like Moholy-Nagy. They remind us that art is alive, a process of constant discovery rather than a fixed statement. It's all about keeping the conversation going, one gesture at a time.