“Creativity as a meaning of life”: Prague’s DOX hosts Czechia’s first David Lynch exhibition
The first-ever exhibition of David Lynch’s visual art in Czechia opened this week at Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Called Up In Flames, it presents a selection of more than 400 works curated in collaboration with Lynch himself, shortly before his death in January. I spoke with curator Otto M. Urban about Lynch’s legacy, Czech ties, and what visitors can expect.
This is the first major exhibition of David Lynch here in the Czech Republic. What can visitors see?
"Visitors can see about 400 artworks. We decided to concentrate on works on paper, from drawings to watercolours, lithographs, and woodcuts.
"And then we also have a selection of his short animated experimental films, where he works with drawing or with classical stop-motion animation.
“The works cover all 60 years of his artistic career, from the mid-1960s to 1924. The last works are a series of 27 small drawings he did during the fall of 1924."
David Lynch, at least here in the Czech Republic, is definitely known mainly as a filmmaker, but he started out as a visual artist. Can you tell us a bit more about this side of his career?
"I don't think that it's only in the Czech Republic. I think globally, even though he had many solo exhibitions, he's still considered mainly a film director.
“And I think that's not correct, because he was an artist in general. He created amazing visual pieces, but he was also a very interesting and influential musician.
"His artistic career started at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the mid-1960s, and his first ambition was to be a painter or visual artist.
"At one point, they had a homework assignment at school to create an art object that moves. And that was actually his first film—or first video—which he created in 1967. That piece is at the beginning of the exhibition.
"Later on, he focused on films, but he never stopped creating drawings, objects, watercolours, paintings, and other works. So every decade of his artistic career is represented in the exhibition."
And do you see connections between the films and the visual works?
"There are connections, really important ones, but his visual works are not illustrations.
"There are connections to the films, and it's more like a parallel universe, which, if you know his films, gives you, of course, an advantage in understanding or enjoying his drawings, paintings, or whatever.
"On the other hand, knowledge of his visual artworks could be one of the possible keys to unlocking the secret world of David Lynch."
You visited David Lynch in person just a few months before he passed away. What was this meeting like, and did he give you any suggestions as to how the exhibition should be presented?
"Yes, it was a great meeting. He was not only a great artist, but also a great human being. You know, he was very friendly. I visited him with a proposal for the exhibition, and we discussed it.
"And then I asked him if he would change anything. He said, no, I'm looking forward to seeing what you will do with the works, because every curator has their own special approach and arranges the works in a way that's new for me.
"So for a curator, it was the ideal situation—I had the chance to ask many questions, but the final decision and final responsibility were on my side."
Can you remind our listeners what kind of connection Lynch had to Czechia?
"There are several very interesting connections. One is that when he began studying at film school in LA, his first and most important teacher was Frank Daniel, who was originally a Czech filmmaker and a teacher at the Prague Film Academy.
"In 1968, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to the US and was appointed head of the newly established film school. And Lynch, on many occasions, mentioned that it was Frank Daniel who taught him the basics of filmmaking. That's one connection.
"Another connection is his music, because he visited Prague several times with Angelo Badalamenti, and they recorded music for Blue Velvet and Lost Highway.
"And it's also important to mention that, for him, Prague was very closely connected with Franz Kafka, who was his favourite writer. He once even said that he felt Kafka was his spiritual brother.
“He even wrote a script based on Metamorphosis. When it was finished, he said it was not possible to film it. So it's one of many projects that exist just as a script, but not as a film."
And finally, what have you yourself discovered when preparing this exhibition about David Lynch?
"Many things. As I mentioned, I didn't discover it, but I really saw with my own eyes not only a great artist, but also a really great human being—someone who was very friendly, very empathetic, and for whom creativity was a kind of meaning of life, I would say.
"He turned his house and property into a large studio where he had the chance to work on films, music, furniture, drawings, paintings—on everything—within just a few square meters. And that was the place where he was happiest.
"He didn't like to travel much, and in his last years, he actually stopped leaving that place and just concentrated on creativity. David Lynch was born into the world of creativity."
