Harry Smith, hermetic film-maker, philosopher, archivist, painter & bibliophile stayed in that little music room in my apartment for nine months recovering from a compression fracture of his right knee. He spent months tape-recording ambient sounds of the Lower East Side coming into my Manhattan windows from miles around.

1985

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows an elderly man sitting at a table, reading a book. He is leaning forward, with his right hand on his forehead, looking down through round glasses. The man has a full beard and long, gray, thinning hair. He is wearing a plaid shirt with a chest pocket. In the background, there are bookshelves filled with books, and a window letting in light. The foreground shows the open book he is reading, with handwriting below it.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 14 × 13.8 cm (5 1/2 × 5 7/16 in.)
    sheet: 32 × 42 cm (12 5/8 × 16 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2011.146.11

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary and Ellen Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2011.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

signed and captioned by artist, across bottom in black ink: Harry Smith, hermetic film-maker, philosopher, / archivist, painter & bibliophile stayed in that little / music room in my apartment for nine months re- / covering from a compression fracture of his right knee. / He spent months tape-recording ambient sounds of the Lower East Side coming into my Manhattan windows from miles around. February 22, 1985. Allen Ginsberg; on verso, by unknown hand, across bottom in graphite: GDC-602 CD-AG-25 GDC-601; lower left on mount circled: #4; across bottom: Image# 14268 GD-AG-25 Image; lower right: GDC-596 Image# 11815 GDC-601 + GDC-602 52

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