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Painter, writer, sound poet, lyricist, performance artist - Brion Gysin (1916-86) first came to prominence in the 1950s in the heady atmosphere of the so-called Beat Hotel in Paris. His enormous range of radical ideas would become a source of inspiration for artists of the Beat Generation, as well as for their successors (among them David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Haring, and Laurie Anderson).The sheer variety of visual material illustrated in this first comprehensive study of Gysin's life and work reveals him as a remarkable artist. The accompanying texts include a biographical outline by John Grigsby Geiger, together with first-hand reminiscences by Gysin's friends and contemporaries such as John Giorno and Bernard Heidsieck, and analyses of his work and ideas by later scholars.
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Brion Gysin (1916-1986) was a multifaceted artist whose fertile mind and wide range of original ideas were a source of inspiration for artists of the Beat Generation in Paris, as well as to innovative artists and performers such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Haring, and Laurie Anderson in the next generation. Painter, writer, sound poet, tape composer, lyricist, and performance artist, Gysin is remembered particularly for his evocative paintings of the North African desert in the 1950s and his original calligraphic abstractions based on Japanese and Arabic scripts. The chance discovery by Gysin of the cut-up technique (later developed and refined by William S. Burroughs) and the concept of permutated poems gave rise to new and original forms of sound art wordplay, striking not only in print but also in recordings or live performance. Gysin's inventive ideas also extended to the Dreamachine and to collages of text and photographs. This is the first comprehensive publication on Gysin's achievements. It features reproductions of his paintings and graphics as well as examples of his permutated poems and other writings. Complete with first-hand reminiscences by his contemporaries, it generates the sense of excitement and experimentation that so captivated all who knew this remarkable artistic pioneer. 245 illustrations, 200 in color. With contributions by: Guy Brett, William S. Burroughs, Mohammed Choukri, Gregory Corso, Gladys C. Fabre, John Grigsby Geiger, John Giorno, Bruce Grenville, Bernard Heidsieck, Felicity Mason, Barry Miles, and Nicholas Zurbrugg.
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