David Lynch: An Obituary

It starts with an idea. A feeling. A fleeting vision grasped from the amorphous depths of dreams. Some small spark flickering in the darkened void of the subconscious. As long as one stays true to that initial artistic visitant, that is all that truly matters, and all will eventuate exactly how it should. This is essentially the modus operandi of David Lynch, and makes for art created in a sincerely surrealistic manner, a manner that remains faithful only to itself, to the only thing that truly matters: unadulterated creativity. Possessing this singular ethos ensured that all that Lynch brought forth into this world was imbued with a style so utterly distinctive that the term ‘Lynchian’ is now relatively commonplace. The art world has now suffered an immense loss, as on January 16, 2025, David Lynch’s family announced that the artist was now dead.

David Lynch photographed by frequent musical collaborator Dean Hurley. Image courtesy of Canongate Books.

David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, on January 20, 1946. Due to his father’s position as a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he lived a somewhat transitory existence as a child, but despite this seemingly stimulating upbringing, he still longed for something to happen that was out of the ordinary. That something would eventually manifest on a darkened night, at the end of a quiet street, in a small town somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. As recounted in the 2018 biography/autobiography, Room to Dream, David and his brother were out beneath the perpetually dimmed neighborhood streetlights, when a woman with skin the color of milk and mouth painted a bloodied red, staggered forth from the surrounding darkness devoid of all clothing. His brother began to cry, and the lady sat down on the curb. Lynch wanted to help but being so young found himself at a loss at what to do. Although the nameless woman was obviously traumatized, Lynch still found an undeniable beauty in the strange and haunting tableau. Like is the case with many artists, Lynch’s childhood would echo throughout his future oeuvre. The incident involving the stripped and battered woman would find its way into his 1986 film Blue Velvet, and the behind-closed-curtains world of the ostensibly cookie-cutter 1950s that he grew up in would also permeate the fictional town of Twin Peaks.

David Lynch, Sun is gone, 2014 Collections FC (2016) © David Lynch. Photograph © Olivier Ouadah. Image courtesy of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris

Painting was the initial medium that drew Lynch to the art life. He had always possessed an immense interest in both drawing and painting, but it was upon discovering that his high school friend Toby Keeler’s father was a fine-art painter, that forever changed the course of Lynch’s life. Bushnell Keeler would serve as a mentor of sorts to the burgeoning artist, making space in his studio for David to work. Lynch would go on to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where his first short film would be made in 1967. Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) was born from a desire to see his paintings come to life after catching a flicker of movement in a piece he was working on. His career as a filmmaker can be traced to this moment of intuitive inspiration.

David Lynch, From Digital Nudes, 2021. Image courtesy of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris

In more recent years, Lynch would endearingly broadcast a weather report, as well as present the “lucky number” of the day. The artist also saw an exhibition of new work at New York gallery Sperone Westwater, Squeaky Flies in the Mud, as well as the publication of two volumes of stunningly enigmatic nude photographic collections by the Fondation Cartier, entitled Nudes and Digital Nudes, respectively. The Fondation was also behind The Air is on Fire, a 2007 Paris-based exhibition that held huge importance as it presented to the world the true artistic light in which Lynch worked. The foreboding industrial nightmare of Eraserhead, the garotte-tight sexual tension of Blue Velvet, the sugar-dusted small-town secrets of Twin Peaks: the general public were aware of David Lynch, the surrealistic auteur with an exceptionally good haircut. What they weren’t quite as well aware of, was David Lynch the artistic polymath. Painting, lyric writing, soundscape composition and musical collaboration, sculpture, and photography, all form important aspects of his oeuvre.

David Lynch, Tree At Night. Image courtesy of Sperone Westwater, New York

Whether or not Lynch’s work serves as source of direct influence for the individual artist, the respect inherent in his approach for the work itself, is something most would do well to take serious note of. A relative well-known anecdote serves to exemplify this. While filming the pilot for cult-classic television series Twin Peaks, a scene set in Laura Palmer’s bedroom was believed to be shot true to script. Upon playback it was noted by a cameraman that a set dresser’s reflection had been inadvertently caught in a mirror in the shot’s background. Lynch viewed the footage, and in his typical fashion, decided to run with it. That set dresser, whose visage was so serendipitously captured in the mirror’s surface, was no other than Frank Silva, who would subsequently play the character known simply to the viewer as BOB. Lynch took something that came completely out of the leftfield, and ran with it, solely on the basis that on some intuitive level it felt right. It is this complete and utter creative freedom, this reverence for whatever piece Lynch was working on, that enabled the creative process to flow where it needed, resulting in art that was both honest and indisputably unique. Lynch was known to use the practice of Transcendental Meditation to aid the creative process, and the opening of one’s mind to the plethora of images and ideas that float awaiting in the subconscious, can do nothing but hone the intuition that is so exceedingly important to the artist.

David Lynch photographed by Josh Telles. Image courtesy of Michael Barile.

Although details of Lynch’s death are still emerging, with January 15 looking to be the exact date of departure, it is reported that he died after being evacuated from his home due to the wildfires that continue to rage across Greater Los Angeles. He was only several days shy of his 79^th birthday. He was much loved and will be greatly missed by all who knew him or admired his work.

IN MEMORIAM

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