April 25, 2017, 6:30pm
In honor of the wide-ranging career of the late Robert Rosenblum, the Guggenheim Museum welcomes poet John Giorno and artist Ugo Rondinone as featured speakers at this year’s annual Robert Rosenblum Lecture on Tuesday, April 25. In a conversation moderated by curator Laura Hoptman, these two distinguished creative minds will discuss and reflect on their respective practices and collaborations.
Giorno and Rondinone met at a reading in 1997 and have since become life partners and each other’s muses. The collaborative spirit of their relationship was showcased in the 2015 exhibition I Love John Giorno at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, for which Rondinone conceived the first ever retrospective of Giorno’s poetry and multifaceted art as a work in its own right. Their conversation at the Guggenheim will aim to tease out the nuances of this and other fruits of their partnership. The program concludes with a reception in the Guggenheim’s iconic rotunda.
This program is free. RSVP for updates.
About the Speakers
John Giorno (b. 1936) is a poet and visual artist based in New York. His work explores means by which new media, communication technology, and visual representation can be used to expand the boundaries of poetic language and literature. His work Dial-A-Poem was shown in 1970 in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and has since been exhibited in many galleries internationally. His books of poetry include: Poems by John Giorno, New York: Mother Press, 1967 and Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems 1962-2007, New York: Soft Skull Press, 2008. His published recordings including: Raspberry and Pornographic Poem (The Intrevenus Mind Records, New York [LP33], 1967) and (with Laurie Anderson and William Burroughs) You’re the Guy I Want to Share My Money With, (East Side Digital, Audio CD, 1993).
Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964, Brunnen, Switzerland) is a renowned mixed-media artist who lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include: giorni d’oro + notti d’argento, Macro and Mercati e Foro di Traiano, Rome; Seven Magic Mountains, Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art; Becoming Soil, Carre d’Art, Nîmes; Everytime the Sun Comes Up, Place Vendome, Paris; Vocabulary of Solitude, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; I Love John Giorno, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and BREATH WALK DIE, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. His work is in the collections of MoMA, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; New Museum, New York; Des Moines Art Center; and Dallas Museum of Art.
Laura Hoptman is a curator of contemporary art in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A close friend of both Ugo Rondinone and John Giorno for twenty years, Hoptman has worked with and written about the artists many times. Most recently, she contributed an essay on Giorno’s visual art to I Love John Giorno, published by the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in conjunction with the 2015 exhibition of the same name. She is currently editing a special issue of the Brooklyn Rail devoted to Rondinone and Giorno’s collaboration on that exhibition.
About the lecture series
The Guggenheim’s annual Robert Rosenblum Lecture honors the wide-ranging career of Robert Rosenblum, whose celebrated work included projects on Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and the depiction of dogs in art. A beloved teacher in both the undergraduate and graduate departments at New York University, Rosenblum received a distinguished teaching award in 2005. Previous annual Robert Rosenblum Lectures have included Sir Norman Rosenthal in conversation with the Jeffrey Deitch, William Wegman in discussion with Richard Armstrong, Gilbert and George in conversation with Michael Bracewell, Huey Copeland on “Solar Ethics,” Bridget Alsdorf on “Bonnard, Vallotton, and the Fine Art of Gawking in Fin de Siècle France,” Ellen McBreen on “‘I Paint the Differences between Things’: Matisse, Photography, and African Sculpture.”
Credits
The annual Robert Rosenblum Lecture series is facilitated by the donors to the Robert Rosenblum Fund who are gratefully acknowledged for their generosity.
The Sackler Center for Arts Education is a gift of the Mortimer D. Sackler Family. Endowment funding is provided by The Engelberg Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, The Elaine Terner Cooper Foundation, and the Esther Simon Charitable Trust. Educational activities and/or public programs are made possible in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, The Hilla von Rebay Foundation, and The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation. Funding is also provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; the Windgate Charitable Foundation; the Sidney E. Frank Foundation; Guggenheim Partners, LLC; the Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust; Dorothy and Elihu Modlin; and The Barker Welfare Foundation. Additional support from Con Edison; the Gap Foundation; Katherine and Peter Kend; the Jane A. Lehman and Alan G. Lehman Foundation; the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc.; Jamie Johnson and William S. Dutterer; the Henry E. Niles Foundation, Inc.; and the Metzger-Price Fund, Inc. is gratefully acknowledged.
