Guggenheim 159--Jackson Pollock exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York City 1958

This is Robert Frank’s photographic contact sheet of the Jackson Pollock exhibition at the MoMA in New York. The photos in the sheet, which are small, muted and grey, feel like they have been brought into being in the darkroom, emerging gradually. I can imagine Frank wandering through the exhibition, camera in hand, feeling the electric tension between Pollock's radical canvases and the buttoned-up crowd. What was he thinking, as he snapped these shots? Probably looking for a truth that lies beyond the surface, something more raw and personal. He’s not just documenting an event; he's capturing a moment in art history, and our relationship with it. The way the filmstrip presents images in sequence reminds me of the temporality of painting itself. It invites us to reflect on how we see art, how it makes us feel, and the stories we tell ourselves about it. Just like Pollock was, Frank is experimenting and showing us something brand new.