Jack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C., he looked by then like his late father, red-faced corpulent W. C. Fields shuddering with mortal horror, grimacing on D.M.T. I’d brought back from visiting Timothy Leary at Millbrook Psychedelic Community, Fall 1964.

1964, printed later

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

This black-and-white photograph depicts a man sitting in a chair. He is leaning to the left, with his head supported by his right hand, which rests on the arm of the chair. He has light skin and dark, curing hair under a cap, and he has a distressed expression on his face, his mouth in a deep frown and his eyes looking down. He wears a plaid shirt, a checkered blazer, light-colored pants, and dark shoes. A coat or blanket is hung over the back of the chair behind him, and several suitcases are on the floor next to him. The background includes an open doorway on the right which shows a window with a picket fence behind it, carpeted flooring, a chair or couch, and dark cloth or tapestry hanging on the wall beside the window. On the left is a white wall with the side of a dark cabinet partially visible. A handwritten note is beneath the photo.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 29.5 x 20.8 cm (11 5/8 x 8 3/16 in.)
    sheet: 35.5 x 27.5 cm (14 x 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2009.103.15

  • 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. 71.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: Jack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C., he looked by then like his late father, red-faced corpulent W. C. Fields shuddering with mortal horror, grimacing on D.M.T. I'd brought back from visiting Timothy Leary at Millbrook Psychedelic Community, Fall 1964.; on mount verso across lower center in graphite: DG-AG-54; across lower right: GDC-945


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