John Giorno, LET IT COME LET IT GO, 2017

John Giorno

LET IT COME LET IT GO, 2017

Watercolor on paper

Hand signed and dated by the artist on the back. The frame features a die-cut window on the back to reveal the signature and date.

Measurements:
Frame:
26 x 26 x 2 inches
Artwork:
20 x 20 inches

Provenance:
Donated by the artist to the Rubin Museum in 2017. Acquired from the Rubin Museum.

“When you’re a Buddhist, you work with your mind in meditation, and with various practices you train the mind to realize its empty nature. Strangely, that’s the way I make poems! Maybe it’s developing the ability to see what arises in one’s mind, how it arises and its nature, that makes Buddhism very sympathetic to poets.” — John Giorno

The cyclical message of this painting, Let it Come, Let it Go, emerges from Giorno’s long engagement with Tibetan Buddhism. An avid practitioner of the religion, Giorno draws both spiritual and linguistic inspiration from this tradition, yet the phrase is broad enough to encompass a plethora of associations such erotics, relationships, pain and politics. Since the 1970s, John Giorno has exhibited visual pieces generated from his poetry. Featuring short excerpts from his writing or phrases that have continually haunted him, these paintings, set on monochrome or rainbow backgrounds in their signature font, transform words to image.

Courtesy of Swiss Institute