Lois Snyder Hennessy in her 80th year Grass Valley California, difficult mother, son Gary Snyder presenting birthday cake April 2, 1986.
1986
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 28 × 18.8 cm (11 × 7 3/8 in.) sheet: 35.5 × 27.6 cm (14 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gary Davis
Accession Number
2012.118.60
Art Historical Context
In this intimate gelatin silver print from 1986, Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg captures a family milestone: poet Gary Snyder presenting a birthday cake to his mother Lois Snyder Hennessy, her 80th birthday Grass Valley, California. candid title—"difficult mother"—reflects Ginsberg's unflinching, poetic honesty, hinting at the complex familial dynamics often explored in his work. Measuring 28 × 18.8 cm, this photograph exemplifies Ginsberg's late-career passion for documentary photography, where he chronicled the lives of fellow writers and artists with raw immediacy. Ginsberg, renowned ...
About the Artist
Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), born in Newark, New Jersey, emerged as a multifaceted figure in American culture, best known as a Beat Generation poet but also a prolific visual artist whose photographs, drawings, and prints captured the raw energy of his era. His early life offers little documentation on artistic training, though he attended Columbia University in the 1940s, where he formed connectio...