Artist: William S. Burroughs

October Gallery presents William S. Burroughs, a solo exhibition of rarely seen works which features paintings and drawings created from a variety of materials. From spray paint, ink and acrylic to markers and gunshots, Burroughs' art was an expedition into the unknown, his favourite destination. His life and work were a cohabitation of inner and outer realities; he deconstructed logic and rationalism. Now one hundred and eleven years since William S. Burroughs’s birth, the exhibition highlights the personal intelligence of his work and its influence upon contemporary art.

Burroughs was a prolific writer. He also practiced visual art throughout his life. For decades he produced photographs, collages and films. In visual diaries he noted juxtapositions of personal with public events, identifying with those who suffered, later exemplified in paintings Burn Unit and Warhol, A Portrait in TV Dots....In multimedia collaborations with Brion Gysin, they pioneered incisive tools - ‘cut-ups’- to deconstruct mechanisms of institutionalized control systems that corrupt inborn intelligence. On the death of Gysin, he became a painter. Although his literature had been censored in Britain, he lived in London during the late 1960’s and early ‘70s, making strong connections with many noteworthy figures of the British art scene such as Francis Bacon.

October Gallery’s long association with William S. Burroughs began in 1988 with his second solo exhibition, his first exhibition in the UK. The founders of October Gallery have worked with Burroughs since 1974. Throughout all Burroughs work - art, novels, essays, film and sound experiments - he wove a passionate message: deconstruct control and think for yourself. Artists working in all genres have heard his message, and references to Burroughs’ works are now deeply embedded in Western culture, from painting to film to advertising to literature to journalism to music. While Burroughs is often called the father of the Beat movement, he did not associate himself with the Beats except that Ginsberg, Kerouac and Corso were personal friends. “We’re not doing at all the same thing, either in writing or in outlook.”

His 1952 novel, Queer, is the foundation of Luca Guadagnino’s current film of the same name, starring Daniel Craig. For his portrayal as Lee, based on Burroughs’ own life, Craig obtained a Golden Globe nomination and was long listed for best actor for the 97th Academy Awards.

Throughout March, the exhibition will be accompanied by several events, including films and talks, by those who were influenced by his work or knew and collaborated with William S. Burroughs.

About William S. Burroughs
Born in 1914, St Louis, MI, USA. Died in 1997, Lawrence, KS, USA.
Burroughs profoundly influenced literature, media and successive generations of youth movements. In his incisive essays, longer fictional works, multimedia and visual art, he worked to expose political, economic and cultural control systems. Burroughs graduated from Harvard in literature, and took post graduate courses in anthropology. In New York in the 1940s, he mentored his pals Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corsos. Kerouac was instrumental in convincing his talented friends to write as a profession.

In 1988, October Gallery held the first solo exhibition of Burroughs' work outside the United States and in 1990 presented Two Collaborations: Keith Haring and William S. Burroughs. In 2012, All out of time and into space featured his space age art. In 2015, Can you all hear me? curated by Kathelin Gray, also exhibited other artists inspired by Burroughs: Liliane Lijn, Genesis P. Orridge, Brion Gysin, Shezad Dawood and Cerith Wyn Evans.

Burroughs’ work has been featured in major international galleries and museums including ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Deichtorhallen Hamburg: Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, Germany; Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Austria; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; New Museum, New York, USA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK; Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, USA; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. His work is in many major collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; the British Museum, London, UK; Kochi Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan; ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Sainsbury’s Centre for Visual Art, Norwich, UK.