Robert Frank has been the most influential figure in 20th-century photography. Born in 1924, Frank’s emotional documentary photographs demonstrated how the medium could blend reportage with lyrical images to convey a powerful message. Now, 100 years later, various museums and galleries are organizing retrospectives of his work to honor the man who has been such an instrumental force in image-making. One of them is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), which has installed a special exhibition and the release of a publication.
The lead image is by Robert Frank, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
A New Showcase of Robert Frank
This showcase has two parts. The first one is an exhibit titled Robert Frank: Mary’s Book, which features images from the book the photographer created for his wife, Mary Lockspeiser. The personal album includes 74 small photographs paired with the author’s writings. The pictures and handwritten pros beautifully portrayed Frank’s poetic vision of the objects.
However, if you don’t know how the book came to be, let us recount the tale behind its beginning. In 1949, after meeting Mary, Frank traveled across Europe. First, he met his parents, who resided in Switzerland, and then he stayed in Paris for the rest of the year. It was here that Frank created Mary’s Book, a poem, one could say, made of visuals for the woman he loved. It was a heartfelt gesture and a proclamation of his affection for her. A year after the book reached Mary, the couple tied the knot and settled in Manhattan, in the East Village.
Gradually, the album earned acclaim for its introspective quality. For instance, the chairs and streets of pairs are often devoid of human movement. Thus, it portrays the photographer’s fascination with solitude and personal reflection. Moreover, the book was critical for Frank due to his ingenuity in combining inscriptions and images. For Robert Frank: Mary’s Book, the author’s foundation has loaned MFA a selection of spreads from the book, as well as some photographs from his Paris trip.
The Shelly and Michael Kassen Fund and the Bruce and Laura Monrad Fund for Exhibitions support the showcase. Moreover, a book based on this display will also be published in 2025. The writings will be by Kristen Gresh, the MFA’s Estrellita, Yousuf Karsh, Senior Curator of Photographs, and Stuart Alexander, a Robert Frank scholar. Moreover, this marks the first time that Mary’s Book will be entirely reproduced posthumously.
Celebrating MFA’s Photography Centennial
Robert Frank: Mary’s Book also coincides with a larger celebration of the museum’s centennial anniversary of its dedication to accumulating photography as fine art. A hundred years ago, MFA received 27 photographs as donations from Alfred Stieglitz. Such a stroke of luck helped the MFA become a pioneer in American art institutions while accepting photography as a serious art form. In 1950, this inheritance continued when Steieglitz’s widow, Georgia O’Keeffe, gifted more photographs. Thus, the museum has an almost comprehensive look at the photographer’s trajectory.
And now, MFA is organizing a special display of the newly obtained large-scale photographs. The showcase will continue for six months in two rotations. However, a new publication will be released in 2024, highlighting the numerous visual stories within the MFA’s collection. This new book will reveal how these works were initially acquired for documentation, print, science, publicity, journalism, and artistic references rather than for display. Alongside, the Museum of Fine Arts will also display Barbara Bosworth: The Meadow, an exhibition that celebrates the photographer’s emotive visuals of nature.
The Robert Frank: Mary’s Book exhibition will commence on December 21, whereas Barbara Bosworth: The Meadow begins on December 1. Both exhibitions end on June 22, 2025.