City Lights Bookstore visit—Philip Whalen poet Zen Sensei, anonymous eyeglassed onlooker, Amy and Michael McClure with shopowner poet-painter Laurence Ferlinghetti standing framed in door; below Nanao Sakaki Japonesia’s Bum-Academy longhair poet king, and John Montgomery kneeling beside him, Proud to be Characterized by Jack Kerouac 30 years earlier as a foolish mountaineer in The Dharma Bums. San Francisco, May 22, 1988.

1988

Allen Ginsberg

Associated Names
Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

The image is a black and white photograph showing a group of seven people inside a bookstore. The shot is framed to show each individual from about the waist up. The persons in the back are standing and there are two seated in the foreground. The person on the far left is an older man with glasses, a bald head, and is wearing a chunky knit cardigan over a dark shirt. Next to him, another man with glasses, slightly curly hair, and wearing an open plaid shirt over a dark undershirt, is holding a book. Beside him, a person with short hair and a collared shirt under a sweater holds onto another book, and to their right, a man with fair hair and a rugged jacket stands. Next, a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a knitted sweater stands with his arms relaxed at his sides. In the foreground, a bearded man with long hair and glasses is seated, wearing a light-colored jacket, and holding papers. Beside him, another man with glasses, gray hair, and a flannel shirt kneels, holding a booklet and a pen. The background is densely packed with bookshelves filled with books and some framed pictures. A small round table with a drinking glass and some more books or papers can be seen in the foreground.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 19.9 × 29.5 cm (7 13/16 × 11 5/8 in.)
    sheet: 32 × 42 cm (12 5/8 × 16 9/16 in.)
    mount: 39.9 × 49.9 cm (15 11/16 × 19 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2018.196.25


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2018.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: City Lights Bookstore visit—Philip Whalen poet Zen Sensei, anonymous eyeglassed onlooker, / Amy and Michael McClure with shopowner poet-painter Laurence Ferlinghetti standing / framed in door; below Nanao Sakaki Japonesia’s Bum-Academy longhair poet king, / and John Montgomery kneeling beside him, Proud to be Characterized by Jack Kerouac 30 / years earlier as a foolish mountaineer in The Dharma Bums. San Francisco, May 22, 1988.; bottom center of mount printed in black ink on applied label: [French translation of inscription]; on verso, by unknown hand, bottom center in graphite: GD-AG-133; bottom right: GDC-890; bottom left of mount in graphite circled: #43; bottom center of mount in graphite: Image # 31720; bottom center of mount: GD-AG-133; bottom right of mount: GDC-890; bottom right of mount: 34


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