Modern Counterculture Gallery

ALLEN GINSBERG READING HIS POEMS
Washington, DC 1996

Ginsberg reading at the Smithsonian Institution's REBELS: Painters and Poets of the 1950s exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This photograph is a homage to Mu-Chi the 13th century Zen painter of Six Persimmons.

LARRY KEENAN AT THE SMITHSONIAN
Washington, DC 1996

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery exhibited REBELS: Beat Artists and Poets of the 1950s. I was asked to come to the opening in Washington, DC by the curator Steven Watson. I told him that money was tight and my wife Lisa and I were not planning to attend. I had only one photograph in the exhibit, a mural of Last Gathering at City Lights. He insisted and said I had to come, that there was a special surprise for me. After much discussion with Stephen, Lisa and I went to the opening. As we arrived, we saw my photograph on the front of the Smithsonian as the icon image of the show. I was totally blown away.

Photo by Lisa Keenan

LARRY KEENAN INSIDE THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Washington, DC 1996

REBELS: Beat Artists and Poets of the 1950s, was exhibited by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. I am posing in front of my mural photograph, of Last Gathering of Poets and Artists at City Lights.

Photo by Lisa Keenan