You'll Learn More from Chester Dale

This was the response from the wonderfully dimpled old man who was volunteering at the National Gallery of Art when I asked him where I could find Allen Ginsberg's photos- The Beat Generation.  He didn't say "Young lady" but he did look concerned for my artistic education and priorities.  Little did he know that I have an insider at the Philadelphia Art Museum who knows from modernism.  

After seeing the photographers, I can't disagree with the disapproving volunteer, but I think The Beat Generation was fun.  I forget until I see photographs again how much I enjoy just looking at them.  Especially pictures of people.  Ginsberg's pictures from from two periods- one set from the 1950s-early 1960s and another from the 1980s-early 1990s.  Upon rediscovering the first set of pictures 30 years later, Ginsberg added captions to them (handwritten and a bit difficult to read).  The photos of the young Beat poets show them to be small in frame, sleepy, and often in love.  One picture's caption includes: "Neal Cassady and his love of that year."  It is shocking to see Jack Kerouac in early photos and then 30 years later- defiance and strength becomes grumpiness and slouched shoulders.  The photographs take up 3 galleries and each room contains pictures from a single period.  Instead of making a circle of each room and then moving on, I decided to walk along the outside wall making one large circumference.  This meant that I started with the young Beat Poets, saw them aged, and ended up with them young again.  I'd recommend it as one part of a trip to the National Gallery of Art.

Also, did you know Beat is an abbreviation for Beatnik?  Go figure.