Object Details
- Artist
- Julian Wasser, 1943 - 8 Feb 2023
- Sitter
- Joan Didion, 5 Dec 1934 - 23 Dec 2021
- Exhibition Label
- Joan Didion’s work encapsulates the anxieties of modern life in an instantly recognizable style. She published her first novel in 1963, but it was her collection of nonfiction essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) that brought her widespread public and critical attention. The title of the book, from William Butler Yeats’s (1865–1939) poem “The Second Coming,” denotes the Irish poet’s tone of weary fatalism about contemporary society.
- A New York Times book review stated, “The title piece is about Haight-Ashbury [in San Francisco], and conveys the complexity and the ‘atomization’ of the hippie scene not as the latest fashionable trend, but as a serious advanced stage of society in which things are truly ‘falling apart’ as in Yeats’s poem.” Didion, however, was not immune to the pleasures of California life; she posed here with her Corvette Stingray, an allusion to her writing about the joys of fast driving.
- Joan Didion encapsuló en su obra las ansiedades de la vida moderna en un estilo que resulta inconfundible. Publicó su primera novela en 1963, pero fue su colección de ensayos titulada Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) la que le ganó la atención de la crítica y el público general. El título, tomado de un poema de William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) titulado “The Second Coming”, refleja el tono de hastío fatalista con que el poeta irlandés miraba la sociedad contemporánea.
- Una reseña del New York Times comentó: “La pieza que da título al libro trata sobre Haight-Ashbury [en San Francisco], y comunica la complejidad y “atomización” de la escena hippie no como la última tendencia de moda, sino como una grave etapa avanzada de la sociedad en que realmente ‘todo se desmorona’, como en el poema de Yeats”. Sin embargo, Didion no era inmune a los deleites de la vida en California, y aquí la vemos posando con su Corvette Stingray, alusión a sus escritos sobre el placer de conducir a gran velocidad.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- 1970
- Object number
- NPG.2012.35
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Julian Wasser
- Type
- Photograph
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 24.3 x 34 cm (9 9/16 x 13 3/8")
- Sheet: 25.6 x 35.6 cm (10 1/16 x 14")
- Mat: 40.6 x 55.9 cm (16 x 22")
- Place
- United States\California
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Exterior
- Equipment\Smoking Implements\Cigarette
- Vehicle\Automobile
- Joan Didion: Female
- Joan Didion: Arts & Culture\Literature\Writer
- Joan Didion: Arts & Culture\Journalism and Media\Magazine editor
- Joan Didion: Arts & Culture\Literature\Writer\Playwright
- Joan Didion: Arts & Culture\Literature\Writer\Screenwriter
- Joan Didion: Arts & Culture\Literature\Writer\Essayist
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2012.35
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4b8eedf5c-0458-40e2-aaa6-36c34f760b24
