On the Road: Photographs by Robert Frank from the Collection of Arthur S. Penn
On the Road: Photographs by Robert Frank from the Collection of Arthur S. Penn
Robert Frank
'Butte Montana' (Luncheonette)
Auction Closed
February 22, 08:37 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Robert Frank
1924 - 2019
'Butte Montana' (Luncheonette)
gelatin silver print, signed and titled in ink in the margin, numerical notations in pencil and circular label with annotations in ink on the reverse, 1956, printed no later than 1978
image: 8½ by 13 in. (21.6 by 33 cm.)
Acquired from the photographer, 1978
The Americans, no. 41
Tod Papageorge, Walker Evans and Robert Frank: An Essay on Influence (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1981), p. 27
Robert Frank and American Politics (Akron Art Museum, 1985), p. 12
Sarah Greenough, Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans (Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, 2009), pp. 260 and 472, and Contact no. 41
Peter Galassi, Walker Evans & Company (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2000), pl. 220
Philip Brookman and Vicente Todolí, Robert Frank: Storylines (London: Tate Modern, 2004), frontispiece 6
Butte, Montana was established as a mining camp in 1864 in the northern Rocky Mountains and experienced rapid development as Montana’s first major city. The city was still heavily involved in mining operations for silver, copper, and zinc by the time Jack Kerouac drove through in 1949, looking for inspiration for On the Road and Robert Frank followed in 19__. Kerouac wrote “A town full of “sullen Indians (Blackfeet) drinking red whiskey in the john,” where “everyone was drunk,” and bars closed “at dawn, if at all.”
This image, of a bumper pool table and local political campaign posters in a luncheonette, was included in the sequence for The Americans, as well as a view from Frank's hotel room.