David Lynch NYC galleries - Big Bongo Night & I Like To See My Sheep

Jasper

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Apr 12, 2022
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Thanks, @Jordan Cole, for posting all of this. I appreciate the inclusion of some of closeups.

Lynch’s artwork both fascinates and repels me. I do not share or understand his intense, unceasing interest in the grotesque, unwell, and extremely crude. These things are present and can work to great effect in his directorial work, where they provide a fascinating contrast to and contextualization of other elements. When it comes to his artwork, for whatever reason, the grotesque (etc.) seems to dominate. (Despite this, there’s often amusement and sometimes even beauty present in his artwork. I'm bemused that I can still find some enjoyment in his work, despite so much of it provoking in me a not insignificant level of revulsion.) I remember Lynch once describing his painting as something the viewer wants to attack and “bite.” His process almost seems to be a sort of purging, which is fascinating for a man who's been faithfully meditating for so many decades. I forget who it was who said that if it weren’t for his art-making, Lynch might be a serial killer.

Lynch loves to include low relief, and sometimes even high relief in his paintings, and that’s one of the more consistently fascinating things about them.

What I find most interesting and amusing about the drawings/paintings in this particular show, along with the striking blue female body, is the seeming repetition of certain characters across a number of pieces, which I’ve assembled here in three rows to get more of a sense of them.

LYNCH_SHOW_characters.jpg

The top row looks for all the world like Michael Myers of Halloween franchise, which is funny in light of some of the enthusiasm for Halloween in the film section of this forum.

The second row features a female head with what looks like a short late-1950s or early 1960s hairstyle. Going by one of the pieces, the name of this character could be “Sally,” and Sally is apparently “mad.” That the face is crossed out in one piece might indicate that this character is something of an extreme negative force in the mind of Lynch.

The bottom row character is like some deranged version of a 50s/60s advertising mascot, who’s come along to peddle some tainted form of off-brand Tang.
 
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