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- David Lynch
“We know that things are going on. Not in every house, but enough. Things that we can’t even imagine are going on.”
David Lynch made a special film for Bonnefanten
Someone is in my House
30/11/2018 – 28/04/2019
The Bonnefantenmuseum presents the extensive retrospective Someone is in my House, by the American artist David Lynch. Although David Lynch is undoubtedly a pivotal figure in the international film and TV world, his work as a visual artist is not nearly as well-known. The Bonnefanten is not only presenting the first museum exhibition of Lynch's visual art in the Netherlands, but also the largest retrospective ever, comprising over 500 works by the artist.
Photo by Josh Telles
Although the work of Lynch (1946, Missoula, Montana, US) might suggest otherwise, filled as it is with dark violence and sexuality, the artist and filmmaker's childhood was a happy and loving one. Lynch's parents loved to travel, so he led a nomadic life from an early age, which for him was an idyllic and safe environment. Encouraged from an early age to be creative – colouring books were forbidden in favour of using his own imagination – he ended up studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia. There, Lynch developed his artistic vocabulary and themes that would recur throughout his future work.
Lynch's artistry runs like a thread through his life and his films. Throughout his fifty-year career, he has continued to draw and paint, even when his work as a film director meant there was little time to spend in his studio.
"I miss painting when I'm not painting", says Lynch himself in the recent autobiography Room to Dream.
“I learned that just beneath the surface there’s another world, and still different worlds if you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn’t find the proof. It was just a feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force – a wild pain and decay – also accompanies everything.”
David Lynch