Film stills of John Giorno from Andy Warhol’s Sleep, New York, 1963
Courtesy of the Giorno Poetry Systems ArchiveSleep, a film by Andy Warhol featuring John Giorno
Special screening | Marciano Art Foundation, February 27 at 5 pm
As a special event on the occasion of the exhibition 'JOHN GIORNO: NO NOSTALGIA', the Marciano Art Foundation is proud to present a one night only screening of Andy Warhol’s epic five hour and twenty-one minute silent film Sleep in conjunction with the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Starring a young John Giorno, Warhol’s first foray into the world of filmmaking was made over several nights in the summer and autumn of 1963. The film shows twenty-two close-ups of the poet Giorno, who was briefly Warhol’s lover, as he sleeps.
By documenting a single action durationally with no dramatic narrative, Warhol turned film into something that could be treated like a painting hanging on a wall, or as Giorno himself put it: “the body of a man as a field of light and shadow.” Sleep became a legendary work of experimental cinema and marked the beginning of Warhol’s half decade focus on filmmaking as a central part of his artistic practice.
Marciano Art Foundation
4357 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA US
Friday, February 27 from 5 – 10:30 pm
