Trolley, New Orleans

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Trolley, New Orleans

Artist Robert Frank (American, born Switzerland, 1924 - 2019)

Date1958

Dimensions8 9/16 x 12 9/16 in. (21.7 x 31.9 cm)

Mediumgelatin silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by an anonymous donor

Object number

1978.18

Not on View

Label TextThe photographic work that Robert Frank did before leaving Switzerland for the United States in 1947 has been described as “almost luxurious: graphically rich, poetically elliptical, half painterly in surface.” His best know and most original work, however, dates from the 1950s and is perhaps inspired by the very difficult challenges of a radically new culture and exposure to the Depression-era work of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955, Frank travelled across America, “seeing those faces, those people, the kind of hidden violence” that he captured in Trolley, New Orleans—a photograph that sums up Frank’s work. The strong, spare composition, organized in simple rectangles, containing figures and extraordinary patterns of reflections, elevates the ordinary scene through the force and penetration of Frank’s vision. His concern is not with traditional beauty, but rather with straightforward documentation of all aspects and classes of American society. The impartiality and honesty of his images—such as his revealing study of the trolley passengers—is often charged with social commentary. This aspect of his work and his seemingly off-hand compositions have been an important influence, linking Frank with many younger photographers, including Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand.Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, Prints, Photographs and Drawings: Recent Acquisitions, April 1-15, 1979.

Toledo Museum of Art, Past and Present: Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Jan. 22 - June 8, 1999.

Toledo Museum of Art, Pop Prints from the TMA Collection, July 7 - October 8, 2006.

Toledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.

Toledo Museum of Art, People Get Ready: 50 Years of Civil Rights, Jun. 27-Sept. 21, 2014.