Lafcadio & Peter Orlovsky at kitchen table, Peter's apartment 5 Turner Terrace, a veteran's housing Project near a gigantic gas tank on Potrero Hill. 23 year old Peter brought Lafcadio, age 15, to Bay Area to stay with us, relieve his mother Kate in Northport, L.I., where Lafcadio knew Kerouac, and had visions of becoming a millionaire (and building a private space-ship to get off Nuked Planet Earth to another world) by answering dozens & dozens of get-rich-quick home-sales ads ("Earn $800.00 a day selling special Fish-bait oil by Telephone!") in pulp magazines' back pages. next Laf quit Jr. High School to bicycle downtown S.F. for dishwashing job--"One of the best periods of his life, getting his first whiff of work, money, independence, he was sparking up, got three social security cards, the F.B.I. came round to investigate" . . .

1956, printed 1995

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows two men seated side by side, facing each other. The man on the left has short, wavy hair and is looking slightly to his right, while the man on the right has short, neat hair and is looking slightly to his left. Both men are shirtless and appear to be sitting closely, with the man on the right having his arm around the shoulders of the man on the left. The setting appears to be a domestic environment, likely a kitchen or living space, as there are shelves with books, boxes, and a visible photograph in the background. The photograph is black and white, with handwritten text below the image.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary S. Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 25.1 x 38.5 cm (9 7/8 x 15 3/16 in.)
    sheet: 40.5 x 50.5 cm (15 15/16 x 19 7/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2011.146.36

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: Lafcadio & Peter Orlovsky at kitchen table, Peter's apartment 5 Turner Terrace, a veteran's housing Pro- / ject near a gigantic gas tank on Potrero Hill. 23 year old Peter brought Lafcadio age 15 to Bay Area to stay / with us, relieve his mother Kate in Northport, L.I., where Lafcadio knew Kerouac, and had visions of becom- / ing a millionaire (and building a private space-ship to get off Nuked Planet Earth to another world) / by answering dozens & dozens of get-rich-quick home-sales ads ("Earn $800.00 a day selling special / Fish-bait oil by Telephone!") in pulp magazines' back pages. next Laf quit Jr. High School to bicycle / downtown S.F. for dishwashing job--"One of the best periods of his life, getting his first whiff of work, / money, independence, he was sparking up, got three social security cards, the F.B.I. came round to in- / vestigate," Peter recalls. Later that year we all took off with Gregory Corso by bus to visit Den- / ise Levertov in Guadelajara & join Kerouac in Mexico City--J.K. wrote about these "Darlovsky Bro- / thers soon after in [underline] Desolation Angels. Summer 1956, San Francisco. Allen Ginsberg; on verso, by artist, on post-it note, lower left in blue ink and graphite: BEST CAPTION / as of 9/16/95 AG; by unknown hand bottom center in graphite: GD-AG-101; bottom right: 30/415 6/55 / [check mark] 3/3 / GDC-862

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