I’d asked Robert Frank to take portrait for Selected Poems dust jacket, he showed up late Sunday afternoon, truck parked across from my apartment, yelled up, he had no camera. I came down with Leica & Fuji 6×9, he took some photos midstreet by his car, I snapped him thus, then with my Fuji he said, “This’ll be it,” as long lambent orange sunlight rayed down East 12th Street from Hudson River horizon, it worked fine for book, he was relaxed, accidentally unerring. N.Y. June 9, 1996., 1996

Inscription

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: I'd asked Robert Frank to take portrait for Selected Poems dust jacket, he showed up late Sunday afternoon, truck parked across from my department, yelled up, he had no camera, I came down with Leica & Fuji 6 x 9, he took some photos midstreet by his car, I snapped him, then with my Fuji he said, "This'll be it", as long lambent orange sunlight rayed down East 12th street from Hudson River horizon, it worked fine for book, he was relaxed, accidentally unnerving. N.Y. June 9, 1996.; on verso, by unknown hand, across lower center in graphite: GD-AG-255; lower right: GDC-689; across lower right stamped in black ink and filled in by unknown hand in graphite: PHOTO INFORMATION Year__6/9/96 Location__NYC IMAGE #__ SLEEVE #__2459 PRINTED BY__Sid Kaplan NOTE__signed AG 8/19/96 [possibly by artist's hand]; across lower left, by unknown hand, on attached post-it in graphite: B[illegible] caption

Provenance

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

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. 75.

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