Peter Orlovsky (b. 1933 –) visiting his family — Lafcadio then age 47 had lived with us S.F – N.Y. 1955 – ’61 & intermittent years later on; Mother Katherine aged 78 totally deaf lip-reading some after botched mastoid operation N.Y. Eye & Ear Hospital 1933, drunken surgeon; Laff’s twin sister Maril who’d roomed with Peter & me East 2’nd Street Lower East Side 1959 while attending baby-nurse school in Jersey, later a half-dozen years she quit hospital job angry hearing other nurse voices’ “filthy gossip” she said about Me and My Brother, Robert Frank’s film on Orlovskys— all this two decades before this moment. From second floor flat on lonely Cottontail Road they needed taxi for any heavy shopping with monthly Social Service Indemnity checks at Supermarket a mile away in Center Moriches, Long Island. July 26, 1987.

1987

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows four people seated on a bench or bed-like surface. They are captured from the waist up, showing their bodies and facial expressions. The first person on the left is an older man with gray hair, wearing a sleeveless tank top and pants. He rests one arm on a small chest of drawers next to him. Next to him is a middle-aged man with short, dark hair and a beard, wearing loose-fitting pants. He has one arm around an elderly woman beside him, who wears a floral-patterned dress. The woman has her hands resting on her lap. On the far right is a woman with her hair tied back, wearing a long-sleeved dress with a textured pattern. She is sitting upright and looking at the camera. The room has wood-paneled walls, and there is a woven basket on top of the chest of drawers beside them, creating a simple setting.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 35.7 × 35.5 cm (14 1/16 × 14 in.)
    sheet: 50.5 × 40.5 cm (19 7/8 × 15 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2010.137.34

  • Copyright

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

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary S. Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2010.

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. 79.

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image:Peter Orlovsky (b. 1933 –) visiting his family — Lafcadio then age 47 had lived with us S.F – N.Y. 1955 – ’61 & intermittent years later on; Mother Katherine aged 78 totally deaf lip-reading some after botched mastoid operation N.Y. Eye & Ear Hospital 1933, drunken surgeon; Laff’s twin sister Maril who’d roomed with Peter & me East 2’nd Street Lower East Side 1959 while attending baby-nurse school in Jersey, later a half-dozen years she quit hospital job angry hearing other nurse voices’ “filthy gossip” she said about Me and My Brother, Robert Frank’s film on Orlovskys— all this two decades before this moment. From second floor flat on lonely Cottontail Road they needed taxi for any heavy shopping with monthly Social Service Indemnity checks at Supermarket a mile away in Center Moriches, Long Island. July 26, 1987.; on verso, by unknown hand, lower center edge in graphite: GD-AG-109; lower right: 7/26/87 / 857; lower right corner: IV; lower right edge: GDC-869

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