Michael Portman, ill-starred English aristocrat, then staying next door room to William Burroughs at Villa Muniria studying Alpha rhythms, stroboscope “Dream-Machine” illusions and letters with Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Dorian Gray youth, he died in mid-age, alcohol and other dissipations, Tangier 1961.
1961, printed 1985
Artist, American, 1926 - 1997
Artwork overview
-
Medium
gelatin silver print
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
image: 29.5 × 19.5 cm (11 5/8 × 7 11/16 in.)
sheet: 35.5 × 27.8 cm (14 × 10 15/16 in.) -
Accession
2012.118.61
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary and Ellen Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2012.
Associated Names
Inscriptions
signed by artist, across bottom in black ink: Michael Portman, ill-starred English aristocrat, then staying next / door room to William Burroughs at Villa Muneria studying Alpha / rhythms, strobiscope “Dream-Machine” illusions and letters with / Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Dorian Gray youth, he died in mid- / age, alcohol and other dissippations, Tanger 1961. Allen Ginsberg; on verso, signed by artist: center right perpendicular in graphite: Signed 4/24/90 AG.; by unknown hand, upper center in graphite: page 22; center right perpendicular: 1961/51/905 / SK printed 12/10/85; lower left circled: #19; lower center: GD-AG-396; lower right: GDC-628