Seen at the SFMOMA.
Looking In, Robert Frank's "The Americans"
"Trolley-New Orleans"
"This photograph was made only days after Frank was arrested and jailed in McGehee, Arkansas, for no apparent reason except that he was foreign-born. As a Jewish man who gre up in Europe during WWIII, he came through that incident with greatly intensified sympathy for people whose race or religion pushed them to the margins of society. Showing a rigid progression from male to female, white to black, old to young to old again, a poignant display of profound but pent-up emotion, this photograph encapsulates both the despair of racial segregation and the tension Frank had recently experienced..."
"The fourth section of the Americans is both the most brutal and the most hopeful. The opening suite of twelve photographs presents a stunning critique of the country. It implies that the American political system drowns out the voice of its average citizens; that Americans worship false icons, such as cowboys and movie stars; that their work is restrictive and unsatisfactory; and that their rich are arrogant, their poor are meek, and their middle class are lulled into quiet submission by a consumer culture.
P.S. I also loved Georgia O'Keefe's conceptual, vibrant flower & nature paintings. My favorite was the Birchtree oil on canvas, but was unable to get an image. This is another painting of hers I found online that I liked,
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