Lot Essay
First published on the cover of Evergreen Review, this was the most frequently reproduced of The Americans photographs before the book itself was issued. It struck a chord among the rapidly growing culture of disaffected youth. It recalls James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Marlon Brando's character in The Wild One. Evergreen Review was produced by Barney Rosset's Grove Press, the daring counterculture publisher of Samuel Beckett's 1954 Waiting for Godot that was also known for overturning obscenity lawsuits for an unexpurgated version of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. It seems only natural that Grove Press would be the only American publisher willing to take a chance and release Robert Frank's book in 1959 as well as Henry Miller's provocative Tropic of Cancer a little over a year later.
The standard title for this image is 'Newburgh, New York' but occasionally, as in the present lot, Frank has titled the print 'Fish Kill' or 'Fishkill' which is on the other side of the Hudson River from Newburgh.
Oversized prints such as the present lot are very rare.
The standard title for this image is 'Newburgh, New York' but occasionally, as in the present lot, Frank has titled the print 'Fish Kill' or 'Fishkill' which is on the other side of the Hudson River from Newburgh.
Oversized prints such as the present lot are very rare.