“Now Jack as I warned you far back as 1945, if you keep going home to live with your ‘Memère’ you’ll find yourself wound tighter and tighter in her apron strings till you’re an old man and can’t escape…” William Seward Burroughs camping as an André Gideian sophisticate lecturing the earnest Thomas Wolfean All-American youth Jack Kerouac who listens soberly dead-pan to “the most intelligent man in America” for a funny second’s charade in my living room 206 East 7th Street Apt 16, Manhattan, one evening Fall 1953.

1953, printed later

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows two men seated on a patterned couch, depicted from the waist up. The man on the left leans back with his legs crossed and his left arm resting on his lap while the right arm supports his body, his head slightly turned to the right. He has short hair and a clean-shaven face, wearing a light-colored collared shirt with short sleeves. The second man, situated next to him on the right, sits with his body leaning against the first man, looking downwards. He has wavy, dark hair and also clean-shaven. He wears a light shirt underneath a darker-colored unbuttoned cardigan. Around them, the wall is papered with floral patterns, and a large, framed poster hangs behind them. To the right side of the image, a floor lamp with two visible bulbs stands in front of an easel or table, which holds an unidentified object.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 28.3 x 44.2 cm (11 1/8 x 17 3/8 in.)
    sheet: 40.4 x 50.2 cm (15 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2009.103.8

  • Copyright

    Copyright (c) 2010 The Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

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

Associated Names

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. 42.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: "Now Jack, as I warned you far back as 1945, if you keep going home to live with your "Memère" you'll find yourself wound tighter and tighter in her apron strings till you're an old man and can't escape..." William Seward Burroughs camping as an André Gideian sophisticate lecturing the earnest Thomas Wolfean all-American youth Jack Kerouac who listens soberly dead-pan to "the most intelligent man in America" for a funny second's charade in my living room 206 East 7th St. Apt 16, Manhattan, one evening Fall 1953.; on verso, by unknown hand, across lower center in graphite: PF 45137H GD-AG-61

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