“Peter lying dressed up in pants on mattress picking his red moustache, with long hollywood Christlike hair & Christ’s small beard stubble — ” (Indian Journals, p. 132) Orlovsky & I spent half year in this room overlooking Dasasumedh Ghat’s bathers pilgrims & beggars a few steps from the Ganges, french window slats overlooking food market one side, pilgrim alley the other. We cooked on small gas camper stove, kept records, wrote letters, visited temples, burning ghats, read Ramayana, mixed with poets & sanskrit Achkans in small restaurant chai houses, visited shenai master Bichmulla Khan, Peter took singing lessons from one Rabmdranath Pal, & we sought out swamis & holy men to talk with. Benares, December 19, 1962., 1962, printed later

Not on View

Medium

gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 19.9 x 29.5 cm (7 13/16 x 11 5/8 in.)

sheet: 28 x 35.2 cm (11 x 13 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Gary S. Davis

Accession Number

2009.103.13

Artists / Makers

Allen Ginsberg (artist) American, 1926 - 1997

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: "Peter lying dressed up in pants on mattress picking his red moustache, with long hollywood Christlike hair & Christ's small beard stubble-" (_Indian Journals,_ p. 132) Orlovsky & I spent half year in this room overlooking Dasasumedh Ghat's bathers pilgrims & beggars a few steps from the Ganges, french window slats overlooking food market one side, pilgrim alley the other. We cooked on small gas camper stove, kept records, wrote letters, visited temples, burning ghats, read Ramayana, mixed with poets & sanskrit Achkans in small restaurant chai houses, visited shenai master Bichmulla Khan, Peter took singing lessons from one Rabmdranath Pal, & we sought out swamis & holy men to talk with. Benares December 19, 1962.; on verso, by unknown hand, across lower center in graphite: GD-AG-142; across lower right: INDIA /62; in lower right corner: GDC-635; across center stamped in black ink: Photograph By Allen Ginsberg COPYRIGHT 1994 NYC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Fax 212-675-1686

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Ellen and Gary Davis, Greenwich, CT (through Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York); gift to NGA, 2009.

Associated Names

Davis, Gary S.

Exhibition History

2010: Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg, National Gallery of Art, Washington; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Grey Art Gallery & Study Center, New York University, New York; The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, 2010 - 2013, no. 62.