john giorno estate
New York, 1936—2019
At the crossroads of poetry, visual arts, music, and performance, John Giorno’s work targets a broad audience, redefining the capabilities of poetry and linguistic form. The New York-born poet and performance artist is recognized as a leading figure of the Beat Generation, a group of American post-World War II writers who rose to prominence in the 1950s through the cultural phenomena they documented and inspired. Giorno’s work encompasses two disciplines: poetry and art, which both fascinated and inspired the artist. His relationships and kinship with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg profoundly influenced his work. Giorno’s words also incorporate images in his Poem Paintings, which feature short excerpts from his writings, phrases that have continually haunted him.
In his first poetry anthology, The American Book of the Dead (1964), Giorno employed Pop Art techniques, such as the appropriation of found imagery in his poetry. That same year, he began applying cut-up and montage techniques to found texts. His first audio poem piece debuted at the Paris Museum of Modern Art Biennale in 1965. He is also credited with inventing Performance Poetry and Dial-A-Poem—a free telephone line connecting listeners to recordings of original works of poetry. Under his not-for-profit production compaNew York, Giorno Poetry Systems, he organized a number of multimedia poetry experiments and events. In 1970, his Dial-A-Poem installation at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, merged words and images to confront audiences with poetry in different contexts.
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, took place at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in New York in 2012. In 2021, Giorno posthumously received the American Book Award from The Before Columbus Foundation for his book Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment.
John Giorno passed away in New York in 2019.
john giorno
GREAT CENTRAL ICON, 1970
silkscreen on paper
96.8 x 108 cm (38 1/8 x 42 1/2 in.)
john giorno
buddhas and bodhisattvas rainbow, 1973
silkscreen on paper
72.4 x 59.7 cm (28 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.)
john giorno
LIFE IS A KILLER, n.d.
graphite on paper
65.4 x 65.4 cm (25 3/4 x 25 3/4 in.)
john giorno
LAVENDER LAUGHING LUSTFUL, 2017
acrylic on canvas
101.5 x 101.5 cm (40 x 40 in.)
john giorno
SPACE FORGETS YOU, 2014
acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in)
john giorno
I RESIGNED MYSELF TO BEING HERE, 2011
acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in.)
john giorno
FILLING WHAT IS EMPTY EMPTYING WHAT IS FULL, 2015
acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in.)
john giorno
WISTERIA GRASPING EMPTINESS, 2016
acrylic on canvas
101.5 x 101.5 cm (40 x 40 in.)
john giorno
WORDS COME FROM SOUND SOUND COMES FROM WISDOM WISDOM COMES FROM EMPTINESS, 2012
acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in.)
john giorno
DIAL-A-POEM (push-button edition), 1968-2019
elephone, computer with 282 recorded poems from 132 poets and artists
12.7 x 27.9 x 27.3 cm (5 x 11 x 10 3/4 in.)
john giorno
DIAL-A-POEM (push-button edition), 1968-2019
elephone, computer with 282 recorded poems from 132 poets and artists
12.7 x 27.9 x 27.3 cm (5 x 11 x 10 3/4 in.)
john giorno
DIAL-A-POEM (push-button edition), 1968-2019
elephone, computer with 282 recorded poems from 132 poets and artists
12.7 x 27.9 x 27.3 cm (5 x 11 x 10 3/4 in.)
john giorno
GOD IS MAN MADE, 2015
acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm (48 x 48 in.)
john giorno
LIFE IS A KILLER, 2019
acrylic on canvas
121.3 x 121.3 cm (47 3/4 x 47 3/4 in.)
john giorno
HIT MY NOSE WITH THE STEM OF A ROSE, 2025
site specific wall painting
variable dimensions
john giorno
DO THE UNDONE, 2019
bluestone
114.3 x 88.9 x 71.1 cm (45 x 35 x 28 in.)
john giorno
LET IT COME LET IT GO, 2021
bluestone
40.6 x 100.3 x 25.4 cm (16 x 39 1/2 x 10 in.)
john giorno
YOU CAN'T HURT ME CAUSE STORMS CAN'T HURT THE SKY, 2021
bluestone
96.5 x 139.7 x 45.7 cm (38 x 55 x 18 in.)
Selected solo exhibitions include: John Giorno: Life Is a Killer, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (two-person exhibition with Rirkrit Tiravanija) (2026); Dial-A-Poem Switzerland, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCO), Geneva, Switzerland (2026); John Giorno: The Performative Word, Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo), Italy (2026); Dial-A-Poem Hong Kong, M+, Hong Kong, China (2026); John Giorno: No Nostalgia, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles (2025); John Giorno: a labor of LOVE, Milano Triennale, Milan (2025); Welcoming the Flowers, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2025); SIT IN MY HEART AND SMILE, Moraes-Barbosa Collection, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); John Giorno: Jasmine Burn, kurimanzutto, New York (2024); John Giorno Dial-A-Poem, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2023); John Giorno, Almine Rech, London (2021); John Giorno: DO THE UNDONE, Sperone Westwater, New York (2019); Ugo Rondinone: I ♡ John Giorno, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); traveled to 13 venues throughout Manhattan, New York (2017); I love John Giorno - an exhibition by Ugo Rondinone, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); Star 69: Dial-A-Poem Relics, The Bauer Hotel, Campo San Moise, Venice (2011); Diagonales, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Puteaux, France (2010); LIFE IS A KILLER, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris (2009); LA SAGEZZA DELLE STREGHE/ WISDOM OF THE WITCHES / LA SAGESSE DES SORCIÈRES, Kaplan Project n°3, Naples, Italy (2005).
Selected group exhibitons include: John Giorno: VIVONO: Arts and feelings, HIV-AIDS in Italy, 1982-1996, Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy (2025); Summer, Almine Rech, Gstaad, Switzerland (2024); Todo se vuelve más ligero, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2023); Llámalo de otra manera / Something Else Press and Intermedia (1963-1974), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2023); Phraseology, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami (2022); Petits papiers du 20e siècle, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2021); In Focus: Statements, Copenhaguen Contemporary, Denmark (2020); You Got to Burn to Shine, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2019); Voyage d’hiver, Château de Versailles, France (2017); The Seeable and the Sayable, Stiftelsen Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway (2016); The Exhibition of a Film, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Artists and Poets, Secession, Vienna, Austria (2015); 39 greatjones, Eva Presenhuber Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2013); Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2012); 15 Minutes: Homage to Andy Warhol, Pollock Krasner House & Study Center, East Hampton, New York (2011); Modern modern, Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2009); Traces du Sacré, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008); Renegades: 25 Years of Performance at Exit Art, Exit Art, New York (2007); Multiple Strategies, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (2004); Lowland Lullaby, Swiss Institute (SI), New York (2002); Whatever Window Is Your Pleasure, George Mulder Fine Art, London (1988); Information, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (1970); Software, The Jewish Museum, New York (1969), among others.
