On the Road: Photographs by Robert Frank from the Collection of Arthur S. Penn

On the Road: Photographs by Robert Frank from the Collection of Arthur S. Penn

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 102. 'Wanamaker Fire NYC' (East 10th Street and Astor Place).

Robert Frank

'Wanamaker Fire NYC' (East 10th Street and Astor Place)

Auction Closed

February 22, 08:37 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Robert Frank

1924 - 2019

'Wanamaker Fire NYC' (East 10th Street and Astor Place)


gelatin silver print, signed, titled, and dated in ink in the margin, numerical notations in pencil and circular label with annotations in ink on the reverse, 1956, printed no later than 1978

image: 8⅞ by 13⅛ in. (22.5 by 33.3 cm.)

Acquired from the photographer, 1978

Anne Wilkes Tucker and Philip Brookman, New York to Nova Scotia (Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, 1986), p. 35

In 1956, the abandoned Wanamaker department store was undergoing demolition by the Astor Broadway Corporation. On Friday, July 13, just weeks before the building was set to be leveled, fire broke out. It took over two days to bring the fire under control, and more than 200 firefighters were injured. The cause was attributed to “careless use of acetylene torches” in demolishing the 94-year old building.


There are prints of this image in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art.