The memoirs of the American artist, a major figure of sound poetry.
Memoirs of John Giorno (1936 - 2019), published by Beaux-Arts de Paris Éditions, is a dive into the world of art and poetry, told by one of the influential figures of the American art scene.
Kept as a diary for 25 years and completed shortly before his death in 2019, Memoirs traces the life and work of a cultural pioneer: "an openly gay man at a time when many artists dared not declare themselves as such, a staunch Buddhist to whom his faith serves as a rudder.
A precious written testimony of a great freedom of tone, John Giorno's memoirs are nourished by his exchanges and intimacy with Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns or Ugo Rondinone but also Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin or William Burroughs.
We also meet Louise Bourgeois, John Cage, Salvador Dali and Gala, Marcel Duchamp, Keith Haring or Patti Smith.
Published in 2002 and a bestseller in the United States, Memoirs is translated from the American by Denyse Beaulieu and richly illustrated.
Jean-Jacques Lebel, artist and specialist in sound poetry, signs the preface and testifies: "His itinerary, sometimes desperately painful, sometimes hilariously joyful, as a gay poet/performer/plastic artist and practicing Buddhist, was anything but veiled and shameful. There was in him a kind of invincible jubilation; even in suffering or defeat, a karmic adequacy, resulting from a grandiose spirituality assumed.
On the occasion of the publication, a reading is organized at the Maison de la Poésie on Friday, October 21 at 7pm, in the presence of Jean-Jacques Lebel, Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux and Pierre Baux.
Collection Écrits d'artistes
Preface by Jean-Jacques Lebel
Translation by Denyse Beaulieu
Format 140 x 205 mm
ISBN : 978-2-84056-8339
350 pages
Bound in paperback
Price: 25 € per page
Published October 2022
Beaux-Arts de Paris Editions
