The exhibition delves into the six decades that followed Frank’s landmark photobook The Americans (1958) until his death in 2019, highlighting his ongoing experimentation and collaboration across mediums. Coinciding with the centennial of the artist’s birth, and taking its name from his 1980 film, Life Dances On explores Frank’s artistic and personal dialogues with other artists and his communities. The exhibition features more than 250 objects, including photographs, films, books, and archival materials, drawn from MoMA's vast collection along with significant loans.. Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue is organized by Lucy Gallun, Curator, with Kaitlin Booher, Newhall Fellow, and Casey Li. Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue is the first solo exhibition of Robert Frank’s work at MoMA.
Dialogue as the theme of the exhibition
Organized chronologically, Life Dances On focuses on the theme of dialogue in Frank’s work and reflects on the significance of the people who shaped his vision. Frank’s words are present throughout the exhibition: in the texts he scribbled directly onto his photographic negatives, in the spoken narratives that accompany his films, and in quotations included in the exhibition catalogue published by MoMA in conjunction with the exhibition. Frank’s innovation across multiple mediums is also revealed throughout the exhibition, from his early forays into film with other Beat artists, with films such as Pull My Daisy (1959), to the artist books he called “visual diaries” that he produced nearly every year in the last decade of his life. Focusing on dialogue and experimentation, the exhibition explores enduring themes of artistic inspiration, family, partnership, loss, and memory through the lens of Frank’s personal trauma and life experiences.
Among the works presented in the exhibition are a selection of photographs taken from Frank's filming for his 1980 film Life Dances On
These works reflect on the significance of the people who shaped Frank's vision: in this case, his daughter Andrea and his friend and film collaborator Danny Seymour. Like much of his work, the film is set in Frank's communities in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he and his wife, artist June Leaf, moved in 1970. In conjunction with the exhibition, MoMA presents Scrapbook Footage by Robert Frank, an installation in the Morita and Titus galleries, featuring previously unseen footage and films by Frank, designed by Frank’s longtime editor Laura Israel and Artistic Director Alex Bingham. With the support of June Leaf and the Robert Frank Foundation, Israel and Bingham have created a multichannel installation using newly digitized and restored materials unearthed after Frank’s death. Presented for the first time, this installation reveals Frank’s relentless experimentation and offers an opportunity to encounter central figures in his life and work in New York, Nova Scotia, and beyond. In conjunction with the exhibition, MoMA will also present a comprehensive retrospective of Robert Frank’s films and videos, many of which have been recently restored by the Museum. The film is organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, Department of Film, with Lucy Gallun, Curator, and Kaitlin Booher, Newhall Fellow, Department of Photography, and the accompanying retrospective of Robert Frank’s films and videos is organized by Siegel.
MoMA has exhibited Frank's work since 1950, at the beginning of his career.
In 1962, the Museum presented Frank’s work in a two-person exhibition with photographer Harry Callahan. Since then, the Museum has regularly collected and exhibited his work, and today the Museum’s collection includes over 200 photographs by Frank. That collection has been built upon the major gifts of Robert and Gayle Greenhill in 2013 and, more recently, the pledged gift to the Museum of Michael Jesselson, which includes a remarkable group of works, many of which are presented at MoMA for the first time in this exhibition. In 2015, the artist made a remarkable gift of his complete film and video oeuvre, spanning his entire film career. MoMA’s Department of Film has since been engaged in a multi-year restoration project of these materials. Building on this significant history with the Museum, Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue is the first solo exhibition of Robert Frank’s work at MoMA.
