Robert Frank at the Addison Gallery, Andover, Massachusetts

“Robert Frank: The Americans,” at the Addison Gallery of American Art

Three people in 1950s New York

New York, by Robert Frank, negative 1955-56
Courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art

Robert Frank photograph of partially obscured people looking out of windows behind a large American flag

Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey, Robert Frank, negative 1955-56

Courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art

Given the current national crises, The Americans, the 1958 book by Robert Frank, is an especially timely document. The Swiss photographer captured a culture in transition: activists and opponents squaring off within a changing racial landscape, people more openly expressing themselves while challenging social norms. New York and Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey are among those on display in “Robert Frank: The Americans” at Andover’s Addison Gallery of American Art through April 11. In one sense, it took an outsider, the exhibit notes, to probe “the defining and enduring dualities of American life and culture—hope and despair, affluence and want, freedom and limitation, community and isolation.”

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown

You might also like

England’s First Sports Megastar

A collection of illustrations capture a boxer’s triumphant moment. 

Rachel Ruysch’s Lush (Still) Life

Now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, a Dutch painter’s art proved a treasure trove for scientists.

The Artist Edward Gorey—and Pets—at Harvard

Winter exhibits at Houghton Library   

Most popular

The 1884 Cannibalism-at-Sea Case That Still Has Harvard Talking

The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens changed the course of legal history. Here’s why it’s been fodder for countless classroom debates.

For Campus Speech, Civility is a Cultural Practice

A former Harvard College dean reviews Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber’s book Terms of Respect.

Explore More From Current Issue

Two bare-knuckle boxers fight in a ring, surrounded by onlookers in 19th-century attire.

England’s First Sports Megastar

A collection of illustrations capture a boxer’s triumphant moment. 

An axolotl with a pale body and pink frilly gills, looking directly at the viewer.

Regenerative Biology’s Baby Steps

What axolotl salamanders could teach us about limb regrowth

Lawrence H. Summers, looking serious while speaking at a podium with a microphone.

Harvard in the News

Grade inflation, Epstein files fallout, University database breach