Untitled
Item
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Title
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Untitled
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Rights
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National Gallery of Art, Fair Use.
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Creator
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Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
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Date
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1955, printed 1995
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Description
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Allen Ginsberg was a prominent poet and writer from the 1950s to 1970s, during which he openly expressed his homosexuality. This photo is one that Ginsberg took of his own home in New York City, which he captioned as, "My front room 1010 Montgomery Street North Beach apartment wherein I wrote Howl Part I, Peter Orlovsky's room down the hall past the kitchen in back, windows overlooking Telegraph Hill's roofs and Oakland Bay. Robert La Vigne's watercolor portrait of me in army-surplus jacket and Cézanne-like landscape pinned to wall above spittoon-shaped woven basket on mantel, fireplace lit. Bollinger books on shelf, letters and Essays of Ezra Pound under bed-table clock, checkered wool blanket hung over alley window first floor, black-painted bureau with victrola-case & Bach on top. "Blessed be the Muses / for their descent / dancing round my desk / Crowning my balding head / With laurel.” I was living on unemployment checks, San Francisco, Summer 1955." The room is cluttered with many details to focus on, but most prominent is his unmade bed and the reflection of sunlight from the mirror on his headboard.
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Format
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Gelatin silver print. Image: 29.21 × 44.45 cm (11 1/2 × 17 1/2 in.) Sheet: 40.32 × 50.64 cm (15 7/8 × 19 15/16 in.)
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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National Gallery of Art. 2010.137.26
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Contributor
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Max Schrader
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Subject
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front room; living room; room; handwriting
Untitled