“. . . dreaming out the window eat my gruel / as ailanthus trees bud & grow thick green, seaweed in rainy Atlantis, / lose leaves after snowfall, sit bare branched in January’s rusty winds? / Snap photographs focus’d on the clothesline, courtyard chimneypots a block away?” See “May Days 1988,” Cosmopolitan Greetings book. Here new buds of May, raindrops on the clothesline, the picture taken four days after poem was written — Lower East Side N.Y. May 7, 1988.

1988

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The black and white photograph shows a view through a windowsill, with the window frame dividing the view into four panes. The urban landscape outside includes brick buildings with fire escapes, tall buildings, and leafless tree branches. The scene appears to be set in winter or early spring. The emphasis is on the textures of the bricks and tree branches, captured in detail. The monochromatic palette highlights shades of gray and contrasts light and shadow. A newspaper with the headline "The New York Times" is visible below the window. Handwritten text below the image provides context.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 26.8 x 18 cm (10 9/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
    sheet: 35.5 x 27.8 cm (14 x 10 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2009.108.7

  • 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. 98.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image:"…dreaming out the window eat my gruel / as ailanthus trees bud and grow thick green, seaweed in rainy Atlantis / lose leaves after snowfall, sit bare branch'd in January's rusty winds? / Snap photographs focus'd on the clothesline, courtyard chimneypots a block away?" see "May Days 1988," Cosmopolitan Greetings book. Here new buds of May, raindrops on the clothesline, the picture taken four days after poem was written, Lower East Side New York May 7, 1988.

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