Photo By Gail

John Giorno (1936 – 2019) had a rare gift for turning language into a visual event. In We Gave a Party for the Gods and the Gods All Came (2015), words don’t sit quietly on the canvas — they announce themselves. Rendered in stark black and white, the poem painting reads like a proclamation, part invitation, part cosmic punchline.

The phrase itself feels expansive and mischievous. It suggests abundance, belief, ego, generosity, and maybe even a little irony: throw a big enough party and the universe shows up. Giorno’s work often blurred the line between poetry, performance, and visual art, and this piece captures that perfectly. The high-contrast palette strips away distraction, forcing the viewer to confront the language head-on, while the scale and repetition typical of his poem paintings turn reading into a physical experience.

Created late in Giorno’s life, the work carries a sense of celebration and arrival — of having lived fully, loudly, and without apology. It’s funny, spiritual, defiant, and oddly tender all at once. Like much of Giorno’s work, it reminds us that words can still feel radical, and that art doesn’t have to whisper to be profound.

Photographed at the Marciano Foundation in Los Angeles