Allen Ginsberg's Photos Degayed at National Gallery of Art

 

You don't think of simple, 2-D, single-frame photos as being cubist but Allen Ginsberg's prints capture ordinary moments in the lives of a core group of friends, ex-lovers, and partners, and they simultaneously offer a view back from the future, as Ginsberg wrote descriptions of each sitting when he reprinted the images decades later. On display in three rooms of the west wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, until September 6, Beat Memories radiates all kinds of love. I saw it on Friday and loved the portraits and snapped moments of William S Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady, Larry Rivers, Francesco Clemente, and Gregory Corso (above, in Paris). The subjects are almost exclusively male and the vibe is proudly queer. Indeed, Ginsberg says the idea for writing on his images came from wondering what Rimbaud and Verlaine were doing before and after they were photographed.

Senior curator Sarah Greenough and NGA director Rusty Powell repeatedly acknowledge the gay aspect of Ginsberg's life (while perhaps missing the centrality of it in the creation of his work) in their respective smart essay and welcoming letter in the handsome exhibition catalogue, which retails for $50. However in the gallery itself, and online, all the places the text information is public and free, every curatorial mention of homosexuality has been banished. If the image of a young Peter Orlovsky cartwheeling nude in tall grass by a pond speaks for itself, his relationship to Ginsberg remains a mystery to viewers. Typical of the museums cowering in the shadow of the Capitol, with one hand they write on the wall about the Beats' "sexual openness" and with the other hand they erase every trace of it from their visitors' gaze. Greenough unwisely wondered aloud at a recent press preview what Ginsberg would think of her exhibit. She already has the answer, in Ginsberg's own handwriting on the museum's piece 2008.131.14, in which he complains of Heavy Petting, "final movie version cut out Bill's queer loves." If that's not clear enough, then Howl.

The exhibit was co-funded by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. View 12 images here.

Comments

[Sandy]

As a silly New Jersey teenager, I was in Manhattan often during the 1960s. One day, I found Allen G. listed in the NYC phonebook (!), went to his East Village apartment house, located his door, knocked. He and Peter O. answered. I babbled and they were kind. Reading what you've written here, what he's written here, and looking at these lovely photos brought back that brief but shaping memory. Thanks.

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