{"data":{"id":"3897","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":3897,"topgoose_id":2226,"tms_id":3897,"display_name":"Robert Frank","sort_name":"Frank Robert","display_date":"1924–2019","begin_date":"1924","end_date":"2019","biography":"\u003cp\u003eWith the publication of \u003cem\u003eThe Americans\u003c/em\u003e in 1958, Robert Frank changed the course of postwar photography. After leaving his native Switzerland in 1953, Frank applied his talent with a handheld camera to present a gritty picture of the United States that was provocatively out of sync with the nation’s optimistic sense of itself. In 1955, with a Guggenheim fellowship he received with the support of \u003ca href=\"/artists/4831\"\u003eWalker Evans\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/artists/1276\"\u003eEdward Steichen\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eHarper’s Bazaar\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eart director Alexey Brodovitch, Frank purchased a used Ford coupe and crisscrossed the country for nearly a year, taking photographs.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom over seven hundred rolls of film, Frank selected \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/46371\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e as the penultimate of the eighty-three images in \u003cem\u003eThe Americans\u003c/em\u003e. The picture encapsulates the photographer’s astute attention to racial and economic inequalities, budding subcultures, and the romanticism of the American road at midcentury. The photograph of a denim-clad African American couple on a motorcycle is at once provocative yet intentionally ambiguous. In the 1950s motorcycling represented a rebellion against middle-class society. In 1953 Marlon Brando played a bad-boy biker in \u003cem\u003eThe Wild One\u003c/em\u003e, a film based on the infamous Hollister riot of 1947. In 1956, the same year as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the beginnings of the civil rights movement, an image of black motorcyclists might have been discomfiting for many white Americans. In fact, \u003cem\u003eThe Americans\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003ewas derided at first by many\ncritics as “un-American” because Frank\njettisoned any veils of propriety and\ncaptured the people he encountered with\nblunt candor and unflinching attention.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500019916","wikidata_id":"Q467574","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:13:46.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-30T07:00:29.370-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/3897/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/3897/exhibitions"}}}}