Beat Memories: The
Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
May 2–September 17, 2010
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac wandering along East 7th street after visiting
Burroughs at our pad, passing statue of Congressman Samuel "Sunset" Cot,
"The Letter – Carrier's Friend" in Tompkins Square toward corner of
Avenue A, Lower East Side; he's making a Dostoyevsky mad-face or Russian
basso be-bop Om, first walking around the neighborhood, then involved
with The Subterraneans, pencils & notebook in wool
shirt-pockets, Fall 1953, Manhattan."
1953
gelatin silver print
Gift of Gary S. Davis
2009.108.2
In the first scholarly exhibition of American poet Allen Ginsberg's
photographs, all facets of his work in photography will be explored.
Some 79 works on display will range from the 1950s "drugstore" prints to
his now celebrated portraits of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs,
snapshots of Ginsberg himself taken just before he achieved literary
fame, and his later portraits of the Beats and other friends made in the
1980s and 1990s. Ginsberg (1926–1997) started taking photographs in
1953 when he purchased a small, secondhand Kodak camera. For the next
decade he captured numerous intimate shots of himself as well as his
friends and lovers. He abandoned photography in 1963 but returned to it
in the early 1980s. Encouraged by photographers Berenice
Abbott and Robert
Frank, he reprinted much of his early work and began making new
portraits, adding sometimes extensive inscriptions. Although Ginsberg's
photographs form a compelling portrait of the Beat and counterculture
generation from the 1950s to the 1990s, his pictures are far more than
mere historical documents. The same ideas that inform his poetry—an
intense observation of the world, a deep appreciation of the beauty of
the vernacular, a celebration of the sacredness of the present, and a
faith in intuitive expression—also permeate his photography.
Sponsor: The exhibition is made possible through the
generous support of the Trellis Fund.
Additional support is provided by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation,
Inc.
Schedule: National Gallery of Art, May 2–September
17, 2010
The exhibition is on view in the National Gallery's West Building,
Ground Floor. Tomado de: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/ginsberginfo.shtm
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