Robert Frank

signed and dated in ink in the margin, the number '125' in pencil, the photographer's copyright stamp, with credit and date in ink, and his 'Robert Frank Archive' stamp, with numbers '82' and '619' in pencil, on the reverse, 1956, printed later

Lunn Gallery/Graphics International Ltd., Washington, D. C., 1979

'Der Photograph Robert Frank,' Du, January 1962, p. 18

The Americans: Photographs by Robert Frank (New York, 1986), p. 173

Sarah Greenough, Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 2009), pp. 309, 482, and 483, Contact Sheet #82

Sarah Greenough, Philip Brookman, et al., Robert Frank: Moving Out (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 1994), p. 195

Tod Papageorge, Walker Evans and Robert Frank: An Essay on Influence (Yale University Art Gallery, 1981), p. 39

Robert Frank (Aperture, 1976), p. 37

Robert Frank: Story Lines (London: Tate Modern, 2004), unpaginated

This print, on double-weight paper with a surface sheen, is in generally excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Robert Frank’s status as an outsider informed his choices throughout his Guggenheim travels, and his photographs show a fascination with all aspects of the American culture.  Stopping in Indianapolis in 1956, Frank made photographs of bikers, including members of an African-American motorcycle club, one of many such clubs that formed across America in the 1950s and 1960s. 

A signature image from Frank’s Americans series, the photograph offered here has been recently discovered to show Matthew ‘Mack’ Smiley, a foundry worker and motorcycle enthusiast, and his wife Telester.  The couple was unaware of their now-iconic presence in Frank’s photograph; in 2008, a relative saw the image reproduced for the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s exhibition, On the Road Again with Jack Kerouac and Robert Frank, and brought it to Telester Smiley’s attention.