EATING THE SKY, 2010
King’s Blue, 76 x 76 cm
IT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENS IT’S HOW YOU HANDLE IT, 2010
Oil, Magenta Quinacridone, 51 x 51 cm
Exhibition view
Born in New York in 1936, John Giorno, a leading figure of the Beat Generation, has worked closely with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Brion Gysin, as well as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, whose legacy he is keeping alive. The Beat revolution was founded on the idea that the goodness of human nature would be stifled by a coercive society, an idea that went against the dominant post-war pessimism.
In 1965 he founded “Giorno Poetry Systems†(GPS), making use of various media to disseminate poetry. This collective of artists would also bring out records, producing the works of musicians, poets and performers, many of which would prove to be key twentieth-century artists, such as John Cage or Brion Gysin.
John Giorno is also one of the initiators of “Performance Poetryâ€, artistic representations which, through their use of sound and image, continue to generate new trends. In 1968, GPS launched the “Dial-a-Poem†project (people could dial a number and get to hear a poem), a project in which William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg notably took part. It was a huge success, matching John Giorno’s ambition. Thanks to these new media, Giorno freed poetry from its small circle of readers and contributed to its popularization by reaching out to a wider audience.
John Giorno has also developed the visual aspect of his work. His paintings, drawings and screen prints integrate words and expressions taken from his poems, recently collected in Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007, a volume edited by Marcus Boon.
For the “Eating the Sky†exhibition, the poet will reveal to us the development of his “Poem Paintings†with 25 paintings and 13 drawings. Thanx 4 Nothing, a video in which the performance poet stages himself, will also be presented.
Almine Rech Gallery
29.10 — 18.12.10 / Brussels
