Lynch Exhibit in Paris:
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Since his years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, David Lynch has always devoted a considerable part of his creative activity to the visual arts. The most complete exhibition of this work to date, The Air is on Fire reveals this essential though littleknown aspect of his creativity. Presented in Paris at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain from March 3 to May 27, 2007, the show brings together the various forms of expression employed by this versatile artist whose desire to paint has remained since childhood.

The Air is on Fire brings together a large ensemble of works produced since the 1960s: paintings, photographs, drawings, works on paper, experimental films, and sound environments were created especially for the occasion. Over 500 sketches and other notes carefully conserved by the artist in two binders, with no particular system of organization, are shown in their entirety. The Distorted Nudes series, composed in 2004 of digital images made by modifying scanned erotic photographs taken between 1840 and 1940, is also being shown for the first time. Lynch’s very first short films are screened in a small theater inspired by his film Eraserhead (1977), and he has transformed one of his drawings into a space through which visitors may wander and where they are invited to discover both its inside and outside. Rendering the exhibition itself a fully-fledged work of art, Lynch has designed steel structures with curtains or canvases as supports for his paintings, and transformed a set of interactive sound pieces into sculptures.

The remarkable book that accompanies this exhibition reproduces most of the featured works. With the exception of the paintings, these are deliberately presented with neither titles nor dates, excluding all chronology in accordance with David Lynch’s wishes. The film stills featured evoke his cinematic universe.The publication comes complete with a double CD, recorded on December 15, 2006, on which the artist recalls memories and personal anecdotes while flipping through the 450 pages mock-up of the book.

An artist through and through, David Lynch was personally involved in every aspect of this exhibition, rendering it a “total work of art” that embraces not only the multiple facets of his visual art production but also his passion for music. This passion is also manifest in the program of concerts that he has conceived for the Nomadic Nights series within the context of the exhibition.
Revealing the multiplicity of an incomparable oeuvre, The Air is on Fire coincides with the European release of David Lynch’s new film, INLAND EMPIRE. It offers a unique insight into his creative process and invites viewers to go deep into a fascinating and dizzying creative universe.

Hervé Chandès
Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain