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Lot Essay
You can capture life, but you can’t control it.
- Robert Frank
In 1972 at the age of 48, Robert Frank published his first retrospective book, The Lines of My Hand, which was dedicated to his children and ‘Friends now gone forever." This dedication emphasizes the intimate nature of the book, which is filled with a curated selection of deeply personal photographs— each an homage to devotion, loss, and grief. The book was an outlet for Frank, an opportunity to channel the evolution of these overwhelming, disorderly states of mind. Each image illustrated in The Lines of My Hand was clearly carefully considered. The present lot, printed in 1978, was included in the 1989 edition.
Frank’s evocative work from this period in the 70s and 80s— which fills the pages of The Lines of My Hand—is acutely emotional and aesthetically mesmerizing, a complete visual change for the artist. It is arguably some of his finest, most moving work and certainly his most raw. For the first time Frank incorporates his own text, overlaps fragments of photographs and collages, creates more conceptual and abstract scenes. These images humanize Frank, making him appear relatable and vulnerable. Frank predicted this stylistic shift a year before the book was published: ‘If I were to photograph now, I certainly would double print or do all kinds of things so that I wouldn’t be stuck with that one image’ (A. Tucker, ed., Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia, Houston, 1986, p. 97). In Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou, a vertical diptych, he uses mirrors to achieve a disorienting affect and adds his own scrawled text in dripping black paint
Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou has the unique effect of resonating with every viewer. It provides the opportunity to offer support, to empathize, and to find solace in our resilience.
- Robert Frank
In 1972 at the age of 48, Robert Frank published his first retrospective book, The Lines of My Hand, which was dedicated to his children and ‘Friends now gone forever." This dedication emphasizes the intimate nature of the book, which is filled with a curated selection of deeply personal photographs— each an homage to devotion, loss, and grief. The book was an outlet for Frank, an opportunity to channel the evolution of these overwhelming, disorderly states of mind. Each image illustrated in The Lines of My Hand was clearly carefully considered. The present lot, printed in 1978, was included in the 1989 edition.
Frank’s evocative work from this period in the 70s and 80s— which fills the pages of The Lines of My Hand—is acutely emotional and aesthetically mesmerizing, a complete visual change for the artist. It is arguably some of his finest, most moving work and certainly his most raw. For the first time Frank incorporates his own text, overlaps fragments of photographs and collages, creates more conceptual and abstract scenes. These images humanize Frank, making him appear relatable and vulnerable. Frank predicted this stylistic shift a year before the book was published: ‘If I were to photograph now, I certainly would double print or do all kinds of things so that I wouldn’t be stuck with that one image’ (A. Tucker, ed., Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia, Houston, 1986, p. 97). In Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou, a vertical diptych, he uses mirrors to achieve a disorienting affect and adds his own scrawled text in dripping black paint
Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou has the unique effect of resonating with every viewer. It provides the opportunity to offer support, to empathize, and to find solace in our resilience.