2021 New Editions: David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravures
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #1, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #4, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #7, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #10, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #2, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #5, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #8, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #11, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #3, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #6, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #9, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch, Distorted Nude Photogravure #12, 2021. Click to view.
David Lynch’s new suite of prints titled Distorted Nude Photogravures marks his first series published with Tandem Press since 2008. Although Lynch has used photographic images in his artwork many times before, this series represents his first use of image manipulation software to alter source images, borrowed with permission from 1000 Nudes: A History of Erotic Photography from 1839-1939, Uwe Scheid Collection (Taschen, in print).
In these twelve prints, deformed nude figures contort, bend, reach, and pose within strange environments that, while mostly unclearly defined, appear to be domestic spaces. The images each sink into a deep velvety black square. This format, slightly reminiscent of film but exaggerated as if to suggest a peep show, aligns the prints with Lynch’s cinematic work and lends a voyeuristic edge to the viewer’s relationship to the images. Given the overall mood of Lynch’s work, it may not be surprising that black is a favorite color of his. In an interview with fellow filmmaker Chris Rodley published in Lynch on Lynch, Revised Edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), Lynch said, “Black has depth. It’s like a little egress; you can go into it, and because it keeps on continuing to be dark, the mind kicks in, and a lot of things that are going on in there become manifest. And you start seeing what you’re afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.”
David Lynch signing his new editions in his Los Angeles studio. Photo by Michael Barile.
