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David Lynch

David-Lynch

Portrait of David Lynch, photography by Josh Telles

Details:

b. 1946, Missoula, Montana
d. 2025, Los Angeles

David Lynch’s prolific nearly six-decade career spanned an extensive range of artmaking including painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, music, and film.

He wrote and directed critically acclaimed films such as Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006), and the television series Twin Peaks (1990–91) and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). While studying painting at the Boston Museum School and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in the late 1960s, Lynch envisioned his first ‘moving painting,’ a multidimensional composition beneath a moving projection titled Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967). This multimedia work marked Lynch’s first foray into video and filmmaking. His remarkable career touched on subjects of the organic body and industrial sites in various states of decay, describing a deeper human experience both beyond and within the everyday. Often depicting scenes with an eye toward surrealism and mystery, Lynch’s work balanced the porous divide between the body and the world it inhabits.

Lynch has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including David Lynch: The Factory Photographs, Photographers’ Gallery, London (2014); David Lynch: Squeaky Flies in the Mud, Sperone Westwater, New York (2019); David Lynch: My Head is Disconnected, HOME, Manchester, United Kingdom (2019), David Lynch: From the Fringes of the Mind, Gyre Gallery, Tokyo (2019); Infinite Deep: The Photographic World of David Lynch, International Photo Festival Olten, Switzerland (2021), which traveled to Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2021–22); David Lynch: I Like to See My Sheep, Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York (2022); and David Lynch: Infinite Deep, Helsinki Photo Festival, Finland (2022–23). Retrospectives of his work include The Air is on Fire: 40 years of Paintings, Photographs, Drawings, Experimental Films, and Sound Creations, Fondation Cartier, Paris (2007), which traveled to La Triennale di Milano (2008); Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, Moscow (2009); and GL Strand, Copenhagen (2011); Between Two Worlds, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2015); Silence and Dynamism, Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland (2017–18); and Someone is in my House, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, the Netherlands (2018–19). In 2013, Brett Littman curated a thematic selection of works utilizing “naming” through narrative text at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, which traveled to the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, United Kingdom (2014–15). In 2014, a survey was presented at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where the artist previously studied painting. Lynch joined Pace in 2022, marking his debut at the gallery with the solo exhibition Big Bongo Night in New York.

2_Clear Top Lamp

David Lynch, Clear Top Lamp, 2022, cold-rolled steel, resin, 60-1/2" × 14" × 24" (153.7 cm × 35.6 cm × 61 cm) © David Lynch

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David Lynch, White Table Top Lamp, 2022, cold-rolled steel, plaster, resin, 13-3/4" × 6" × 6" (34.9 cm × 15.2 cm × 15.2 cm) © David Lynch

4_Lynch_Yellow Green Violet Lamp

David Lynch, Yellow Green Violet Lamp, 2011, cold-rolled steel, plaster, tint, resin 60" × 24" × 12" (152.4 cm × 61 cm × 30.5 cm) © David Lynch

5_Lynch_Gauze Lamp

David Lynch, Gauze Lamp, 2002-2003, cold-rolled steel, plaster, gauze, resin, 50" × 14" × 12" (127 cm × 35.6 cm × 30.5 cm) © David Lynch, photo by Robert Wedemeyer, Los Angeles

Hands Up, Cowboy! by David Lynch

David Lynch, Hands Up, Cowboy!, 2020, mixed media painting on wood, 41 3/4" × 37 11/16" × 4 7/8" (106 cm × 95.7 cm × 12.4 cm) © David Lynch. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer, Los Angeles

Untitled by David Lynch

David Lynch, Untitled, 2020, mixed media painting on wood, 41 11/16" × 38 7/8" × 3 5/8" (105.9 cm × 98.7 cm × 9.2 cm) © David Lynch. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer, Los Angeles

Woman with Small Dead Bird by David Lynch

David Lynch, Woman with Small Dead Bird, 2018, mixed media painting, 58 9/16" × 52 3/4" × 5 9/16" (148.7 cm × 134 cm × 14.1 cm) © David Lynch. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer, Los Angeles

9_LynchD.2106_Blue Kiss with Tree, 2020_RW

David Lynch, Blue Kiss with Tree, 2020, mixed media on canvas, 28 11/16" 34 3/4" × 3 3/4" (72.9 cm × 88.3 cm × 9.5 cm) © David Lynch. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer, Los Angeles