Willem de Kooning 8 1961

Curator: Robert Frank's "Willem de Kooning 8," a gelatin silver print from 1961, is our focus here. A fascinating contact sheet... what are your initial impressions? Editor: The rhythm of it is captivating. It's like a visual poem, the way the eye travels along the frames, piecing together fragments of the artist's activity. Curator: Indeed. Let's consider this work's context: Frank was deeply involved in documenting the everyday, the unglamorous. His background working for magazines played a significant part in the process. What might this sequencing of images suggest about the artist's routine, the labour of creating? Editor: There’s a striking interplay between light and shadow. It is almost like observing a choreography of gestures as he draws, an action carefully broken into smaller, visually coherent steps. Each photograph provides clues for its process-like construction, like observing raw material becoming fine art. Curator: Absolutely. Note too the consistency of the framing, the positioning of the table, and De Kooning. It almost mimics the industrialized labor, doesn't it? How many "De Koonings" are there, and at what cost? Editor: The framing of this question is an important consideration. Through allusions of mechanical processes we can read an intentional, perhaps radical aesthetic choice—an almost anti-art statement! Curator: The print’s medium, a gelatin silver print, is crucial too. In this period there was immense shift away from traditional pictorial styles and new interests began for a direct encounter between photographer and subject. The medium creates this sense of immediacy and realism. Editor: Very true. Although, I do wonder what other silver gelatin photographs might've made use of similar tonalities. How much is intentionality in Frank's work? Perhaps this tonality is one with deeper social implications. Curator: That point highlights how Frank utilized traditional processes to unveil realities overlooked by more established photographic circles. Editor: Ultimately, this sheet gives viewers an unmediated peek into Willem De Kooning’s workflow! It's this that reveals so much of Robert Frank as an artist, his labor, in and of itself, also valuable!