Rare and Unseen Artworks On Show in London

William S. Burroughs, the maverick writer, artist, and cultural provocateur whose work defied convention, reshaping the landscape of 20th-century literature and art, is having his first London show at the October Gallery in decades.

Although he is better known for his literary works such as “Naked Lunch” and “The Soft Machine,” the multi-layered  Burroughs (1914-1997) is far less known, by contrast, as a cross-media artist who also produced a comprehensive, varied body of work that experimented with audio tape, film, and photography as well as painting and collages.

A central figure of the Beat Generation, Burroughs was a man of contradictions: a Harvard-educated anthropologist who became a literary outlaw, a renegade who inspired generations of artists, writers, and rebels. His life and work explored the edges of creativity, queer power, and control.

Born into privilege, Burroughs was destined for a conventional path. But after graduating from Harvard with a degree in anthropology, he turned his back on the expected and plunged into the bohemian underworld of 1940s New York City. There, he met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, two kindred spirits with whom he allied to change our perceptions of literature. Together, they became the core of the Beat Generation, a movement that would alter the course of American culture.

Burroughs’ work was as unconventional as his life. His novels and essays—filled with dark humour, queer references, biting satire, and surreal imagery—sought to expose the hidden systems of control that govern society. But his creativity wasn’t confined to the page. He was a restless experimenter, constantly pushing the boundaries of art and expression. He produced photographs, collages, and paintings that mirrored the fragmented, dreamlike quality of his writing, blurring the lines between word and image.

A turning point came when he met Brion Gysin, the artist who introduced him to the “cut-up” technique—a radical method of slicing and rearranging text to uncover new meanings and disrupt traditional storytelling. This collaboration sparked some of Burroughs’ most innovative work, solidifying his reputation as a pioneer of avant-garde art.

When Gysin died in 1986, Burroughs honoured his friend by creating hundreds of paintings, collages, and “shotgun art,” a raw and explosive process involving firing a shotgun at canvases to create chaotic, unpredictable patterns.

Burroughs’ visual art gained global recognition, with exhibitions in major galleries and museums worldwide. In 1988, London’s October Gallery hosted his first solo exhibition outside the United States, followed by Two Collaborations: Keith Haring and William S. Burroughs in 1990. Later shows, like All Out of Time and Into Space (2012) and Can you all hear me? (2015), curated by Kathleen Gray, celebrated his enduring influence on artists such as Liliane Lijn, Genesis P. Orridge, Shezad Dawood, and Cerith Wyn Evans.

His work has been displayed in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. Today, his art resides in major collections, from the British Museum to the Kochi Museum of Art in Japan.

Burroughs was a writer who became a visual artist, an instigator who became a prophet, and a man who transformed his struggles and obsessions into a body of work that continues to challenge and inspire.

He once wrote, “When you cut into the present, the future leaks out.” William S. Burroughs cut deep, and the future is still leaking.William S.

Burroughs  6th March – 5th April, 2025 October Gallery London

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