Robert LaVigne, a painter, illustrator and theatrical designer closely connected to the Beat poets, was present at the legendary Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955, and reportedly was responsible for introducing Allen Ginsberg to his life companion Peter Orlovsky, who had modeled for several LaVigne paintings; this large still life dates from that period. LaVigne's exhibition career spans 50 years, during which time his work was exhibited at the Whitney Museum during their Beat retrospective, the National Portrait Gallery, the Oakland Museum, Walker Art Center and other institutions. He exhibited at the legendary underground Batman Gallery in San Francisco 1963, Paula Johnson Gallery (now Paula Cooper) and others. He won an Obie award for his designs for a 1963 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in New York; designed sets and costumes for productions of plays by Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, and Jean Genet; and has illustrated books and broadsides by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Phillip Whalen, Phillip Lamantia and others. He has been living in Seattle for the past thirty years. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.