Au revoir David

03 March 2007

"If you thought Lynch's films were weird or impenetrable - just wait until you see the art."



More on David Lynch's exhibition, The Air is on Fire [previously].

There is also a lot of hope and joy in his artwork - like in his humorous sculptures," Ms Shamoon says.

Hope and joy are not things one might associate with Lynch, though he himself insists he is a "very happy man" who has enjoyed transcendental meditation at least twice a day for 30 years.

Yet his art clearly comes from a deep, dark place. Lynch's photographs, the nude series, are extremely disturbing.

They display naked female bodies, many with odd protrusions or vital parts missing.

They look like a cross between Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and the Chapman brothers.

"Francis Bacon is someone who's the obvious comparison," Ms Shamoon says. "He is someone who influenced David Lynch from the beginning, when he went to a fine arts school in Philadelphia."

The Independent on Sunday's film critic Jonathan Romney is impressed by the work.

"David Lynch is prolific," he says. "It's amazing that he's kept all this stuff down the years. And it's all done with such confidence. This is not amateur work."

[Above footage of the David Lynch/Au Revoir Simone event in January. Maximus Clarke reported on the event for Maud Newton]