Brion Gysin — From Our Store

A visual artist, writer, performer and cultural visionary, Gysin introduced his lifelong friend, writer William S. Burroughs, to the techniques of cut-ups and permutation. Together, they experimented in sound and image, using collage, tape recorder, light painting, writing and film. They co-authored Third Mind, the term they also used for their creative collaborations. Gysin began his career as a painter in Paris, studying at Sorbonne and in 1935, was exhibited with Picasso, Arp, Bellmer, Brauner, de Chirico, Dali, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Magritte, Miro, Man Ray, Tanguy at Galerie Quatre Chemins, Paris. He then left for New York in 1939. During World War II he studied Japanese and worked as a codebreaker. Japanese and Arabic calligraphy, influenced Gysin’s style of word/image glyphs. Paul Bowles invited him to Tangier, where Gysin remained for twenty-five years. Gysin lived and worked in Paris until his death in 1986.

In the '60s, Gysin created the Dreamachine, which he described as ‘the only work of art designed to be seen with closed eyes’, and a ‘drugless psychedelic experience’. October Gallery first showed Gysin in 1981. In 2009, his solo exhibition featured Gysin’s 16.4-metre-long painting, Calligraffiti of Fire, his magnum opus and final work, and in 2015, October Gallery presented Unseen Collaborator. Gysin’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France; and numerous private collections. His first USA retrospective was held at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York in June 2010.