David Lynch: Dark Splendor

by Werner Spies, Peter-Klaus Schuster, Dietmar Dath

Parallel to the film career for which he is justly admired, David Lynch (born 1946) has always worked as an artist, having trained in painting at the Corcoran School of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the mid-1960s. Lynch's photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, and more recently, musical compositions, are an indispensable part of his oeuvre and frequently a source of inspiration for his films. Fans of such classics as Blue Velvet , Wild at Heart , Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive will readily conjure the director's keen eye for lush but menacing neo-Surrealist tableaux, for instance, which are directly nourished by his artworks. Other hallmarks of the Lynchian style, such as cryptic messages and inscriptions, foreboding atmospherics and a famously left-field sense of humor likewise appear in the paintings, drawings and photographs collected in David Dark Splendor --a landmark publication that reveals the breadth and accomplishment of his work in this realm. It contains such marvels as his matchbook drawings--pen-and-ink images of shrouded dreamscapes and interiors, inscribed on the inside of matchbooks--his wonderfully foreboding lithographs, in which scrawled captions jostle among murky figures, his photographs of industrial wastelands and his sinister paintings that incorporate materials and objects to further advance their gothic appeal. Dark Splendor presents these works in excellent reproductions, and will seduce fans of contemporary film and art alike.

Genres: Art, Film

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2010

Reviews

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am upping this a star after seeing many of the works in the flesh at the show now at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts here in Philly.

I say "in the flesh" intentionally, as the bulk of the work is so textured and visceral (and even rotten fleshy) that it gives the impression of being an organism; incredibly tactile art.

I also am reviewing this particular volume intentionally, even though it's not the catalogue for the show I attended, because as an object and as a record of the work it is far superior to the catalogue of the Philly show.

The intent of the Philly show, besides being the first full retrospective of his art to be shown in the states, is to flesh out the impact the city and its attendant artists scene had on Lynch when he attended the Academy for two years in the late '60's. Lynch loved his time there, and it was there that he came into his own as an artist and worked and collaborated with a number of very active and hard working artists. One of the main takeaways I got from the show was an image of Lynch as a hard working artist, of an artist involved with the technical nitty-gritty of being an artist; engaging in the labor intensive process of print making, for example.

My eyes were also opened by the very large, even monumental, works he has produced in the last ten years or so, which are impossible to do justice to in reproduction on a page.



While I liked this piece as represented in the catalogue, I also thought it looked tacky and juvenile and even kind of sketchy, as in not fully realized. But in person it is overwhelming. It is maybe 8' x 4' and is in a massive frame that is 4 or 5 inches deep and then covered in glass, making the painting look like a giant vitrine. It is tacky and juvenile, but in a deep primal way, and in person one sees that the boy is wearing an actual little shirt, which adds to the unease generated in the viewer, and that the tiny woman with a gun standing in front of the dark house has visible unappealing labia.

Lynch is all about these kinds of details, and wandering through this show that I was reluctant to leave I realized how completely realized and authentic his vision is and how all his art has roots that not only run deep into his unfettered imagination but into his childhood as well, which adds an unexpected universality to his vision.

[Sabra Embury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own this book, and not only have it signed by David Lynch, he graciously drew a rabbit in it for me when I told him I collected rabbit drawings in books by their authors. Dark Splendor a beautiful(and heavy) hardcover collection, containing images manipulated by Lynch ranging: matchbook cover ink drawings, to sinister lithographs, to watercolor, to mixed media arrangements. The publication also catalogs Lynch's many accomplishments in film, and offers various insights preserving his place in history as one of the most talented surrealists to ever grace the world with his brilliance.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curiously wordy. Needed more larger photos.