I’d asked Robert Frank if he’d make back-jacket photo for Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-'92, we crossed Avenue from his old brick house on Bleeker to leafy empty lot stormfenced near CBGB’s Bowery grunge-rock mecca, he snapped lively Portrait, my Leica M6 strapped on Bike carry-rack, we changed places, I saw his familiar face, September 5, 1993.

1993

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image shows the upper half of a man's body against a chain-link fence with leaves protruding through it. The man is slightly hunched forward, with his left hand on his right knee and his right arm supported against something out of view. He has short, curly graying hair, a broad nose, large eyes, and a serious expression. He wears a plain T-shirt and light-colored pants. A bicycle handlebar is partially visible to his left, entangled with foliage from the fence. The background consists of dense leaves intertwined with the chain-link of the fence.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 34.1 × 22.7 cm (13 7/16 × 8 15/16 in.)
    sheet: 50.4 × 40.5 cm (19 13/16 × 15 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2012.118.79

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary and Ellen Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2012.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

signed by artist, across bottom in black ink: I’d asked Robert Frank if he’d make back-jacket photo for / Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-'92 [underlined], we crossed Avenue from / his old brick house on Bleeker to leafy empty lot stormfenced / near CBGB’s Bowery grunge-rock mecca, he snapped lively Por- / trait, my Leica M-6 strapped on Bike carry-rack, we changed places, / I saw his familiar face, September 5, 1993. Allen Ginsberg; on verso, by unknown hand, lower center in graphite: GD-AG-111; lower right: GDC-852

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