John Giorno USA, 1936-2019
Overview
"In the early 1960s, I had the good fortune of meeting a lot of artists. Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Trisha Brown and Carolee Schneeman. These artists and painters were the real influence on me, as a poet. Whether it was a performance or a painting, they did what arose in their minds, and made it happen. It occurred to me that poetry was seventy five years behind painting and sculpture and dance and music. I said to myself, if these artists can do it, why can’t I do it for poetry?"
American poet and performance artist, John Giorno (1936-2019) is considered a leading figure of the Beat Generation, a group of American post-World War II writers who came to prominence in the 1950s through the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired. Born in New York in 1936, Giorno graduated from Columbia University in 1958. He briefly worked as a stockbroker in New York before meeting Andy Warhol in 1962. The pair became lovers and Warhol remained an important influence for Giorno’s developments on poetry, performance and recordings.
Further inspired by subsequent relationships with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Giorno began applying Pop Art techniques of appropriation of found imagery to his poetry, producing The American Book of the Dead in 1964. That same year, he began applying cut up and montage techniques to found texts. His first audio poem piece of this sort was played at the Paris Museum of Modern Art Biennale in 1965. He founded the not-for-profit production company, Giorno Poetry Systems, and organized a number of multimedia poetry experiments and events, including Dial-A-Poem. In 1970, his Dial-A-Poem installation at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, connected words and images to confront audiences with poetry in different contexts.
The work of John Giorno embraces two disciplines: poetry and art, which have been a source of mutual fascination and inspiration for the artist. Harboring a close kinship with William Burroughs, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, for whom he starred in the famous film, Sleep (1963), Giorno is recognized today as one of the most influential poets of his generation. He is also considered the inventor of Performance Poetry, and of Dial-A-Poem - a free telephone line to connect listeners to recordings of original works of poetry. Giorno's words transform to images in his Poem Paintings which are short excerpts from his writings, phrases that have continually haunted him. At the crossroads between poetry, visual arts, music and performance, Giorno's work directs itself toward a broad public, redefining the capabilities of poetry and linguistic form.
In 2008, the first career-spanning collection of Giorno’s poems, Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007, was published. His first solo show, Black Paintings and Drawings, was held at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in New York in 2012. Giorno was an AIDS activist and fundraiser, and a long-time practitioner of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Works
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John GiornoLIFE IS A KILLER, 2015acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoDIAL-A-POEM (Push Button Edition), 1968-2019mixed media12.7 x 27.9 x 27.9 cm
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John GiornoNOTHING RECEDES LIKE SUCCESS, 2015Acrylic paint on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoA HURRICANE IN A DROP OF CUM, 2015Acrylic paint on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoLIFE IS A KILLER, 2018acrylic on canvas143 x 143 cm
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John GiornoEVERYTHING IS DELUSION INCLUDING WISDOM, 2015acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoWISTERIA GRASPING EMPTINESS, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoALMOST MISS AMERICA ROSE, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoORCHIDS ARE THE TONGUES THAT LIED, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoHIT MY NOSE WITH THE STEM OF A ROSE, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoFOXGLOVE CARILLON CRYING PEARLS, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoNASTURTIUMS FLAUNT TRUMPETS OF FIRE TEASINGLY DEMONIC, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoCLIMATIS CLINGING CELESTIAL DEVOTED, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoDAFFODILS BAPTIZED IN BUTTER, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoPEONIES TOPPLING MILK OF MALICE, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoLAVENDER LAUGHING LUSTFUL, 2017-2023Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoPEONIES TOPPLING MILK OF MALICE, 2017Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
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John GiornoWATERLILLIES SUCKING MUD, 2017Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
Exhibitions
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John Giorno - Perfect flowers
15 Dec 2023 - 26 Jan 2024Created in the late 2000s, the series of works titled 'Perfect Flowers' was inspired by Giorno's 2004 poem 'Welcoming the Flowers' and a corresponding set of prints. Giorno physically transformed...Read more -
From nature to spirit - Group show
24 Sep - 1 Nov 2022This exhibition is the result of exchanging ideas and sharing experiences (both in words and in visual terms) on the relationship between spirit and nature. The artists offer a variety...Read more
News
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John Giorno’s Former Home Is Now One of New York’s Coolest Alternative Art Spaces
ART NEWS MAGAZINE October 3, 2024 Read more -
John Giorno group show "DAFFODILS BUPTIZED IN BUTTER"
The Arts Club, London, UK September 24, 2024 Read more -
John Giorno - God Complex
Eva Presenhuber Gallery, Wien, Austria August 28, 2024JOHN GIORNO GOD COMPLEX at Eva Presenhuber gallery Curator talk with Krist Gruijthuijsen and Anthony Huberman, moderated by Barbara Casavecchia, Editor-in-Chief of Mousse Magazine, 6.30...Read more -
John Giorno
Mousse Magazine (88 Summer 2024) June 7, 2024John Giorno is featured in the Survey column of Mousse Magazine (88—Summer 2024): DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE HERE !Read more -
John Giorno: fioriscono Perfect Flowers da Thomas Brambilla
REVIEW | EXIBART MAGAZINE December 20, 2023 Read more -
John Giorno and Jack Pierson group show "Everything gets lighter"
Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico November 18, 2023In November 2023, the Museo Jumex will celebrate its 10th anniversary. To commemorate this important milestone the museum has invited Lisa Phillips, the Director of...Read more -
John Giorno - "The Revolutionary Phone Line That Expanded Poetry’s Reach"
MoMA Magazine April 14, 2023 Read more -
John Giorno
MoMA, New York, USA April 7, 2023In 1968, at the dawn of a telecommunications revolution, John Giorno began delivering instant poetry through Dial-A-Poem, a free telephone hotline in New York City....Read more -
John Giorno group show "PHRASEOLOGY"
The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL, USA July 30, 2022The term 'phraseology' references the specific choice of words that a communicator, in this case the artist,uses to highlight certain tapies. With the rise of...Read more -
John Giorno group show "You Got to Burn to Shine"
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy February 5, 2019The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome is pleased to announce the upcoming opening of the exhibition You Got to Burn to Shine...Read more -
John Giorno group show "Voyage d'Hiver - The groves of Versailles"
Château de Versailles, Versailles, France October 22, 2017On the occasion of « Voyage d’hiver », Versailles opens its gardens to seventeen artists who are to create a poetic walk through its groves....Read more -
John Giorno - Perfect Flowers
Elisabeth Dee, New York, NYC, USA September 20, 2017The Perfect Flowers series explores new content that the artist began working on in the early 2000s, expanding on previously known lines and cadences around...Read more -
John Giorno - Mousse Magazine
Exhibition Review July 17, 2017 Read more -
John Giorno - I ♥ JOHN GIORNO
80WSE Gallery, Artists Space, High Line Art, Howl! Happening, Hunter College Art Galleries, The Kitchen, New Museum, Red Bull Arts New York, Rubin Museum of Art, Sky Art, Swiss Institute, and White Columns New York June 21, 2017'I ♥︎ John Giorno' is a sprawling, multi-part exhibition that presents the extraordinary life and work of the poet, artist, activist and muse, John Giorno....Read more -
John Giorno - UGO RONDINONE : I ♥ JOHN GIORNO
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France October 20, 2015“UGO RONDINONE : I ♥ JOHN GIORNO” is the first retrospective of the life and work of the American poet John Giorno (born 1936, lives...Read more -
John Giorno - Interventions sur le bâtiment
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France September 27, 2012“John Giorno raises questions to an almost unbearable pitch, to a scream of surprised recognition. His litanies from the underworld of the mind reverberate in...Read more -
John Giorno - THANX 4 NOTHING
Faux Mouvement - Centre d'Art Contemporain, Metz, France May 31, 2012Faux Mouvement presents this solo exhibition of John Giorno as part of the MONO event. This summer, 15 cultural institutions from the Greater Region of...Read more
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