Village East Street Scene
1965-66
The Village East is the result of my seven years' living and working on lower Second Avenue. I had become acquainted with some of the artists and writers . . . I wanted to convey a feeling of energy and life in an atmosphere of deprivation and drabness. . . .Village East is a painting composed of portraits, some of them well known, for example, Allen Ginsberg [at center], Gregory Corso [far left], Diane di Prima [left foreground]. . . . Diane is a sensitive poet, impatient with anything that is not avant-garde. . . Diane is the main character, aimlessly walking out of the painting. . . It was she who first brought Allen Ginsberg to my studio. . . . She also tried to get [jazz trumpeter] LeRoi Jones to pose, but he was too busy and I had to use a photograph to paint his head in Village East
[far left edge]. --Raphael Soyer, 1969
Oil on canvas
60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2012.15.35
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Neustadter, Harrison, New York; [Forum Gallery, New York]; sold to donor, December 1987
Photo: Susan Cole
