Don Van Vliet and Garland, 1989
Born in Glendale, California in 1941, Don Van Vliet drew and painted constantly as a child and by the age of ten had gained regional celebrity as a prodigious sculptor of life-like animals from clay. Van Vliet continued to draw and paint during his many years performing under the stage name Captain Beefheart. Captain Beefheart, together with his Magic Band, recorded thirteen studio albums of boldly unconventional music and ultimately secured Van Vliet's place in rock-and-roll history as one of the most original recording artists of all time. Van Vliet turned away from performance in the early 1980s, devoting his intense creative energy solely to painting.
Like the music he created in the decades prior, the visual works that poured forth from the 1980s until his death in 2010 are bold and edgy and do not fit comfortably into one stylistic category. The artist's decisive gesture, spare palette and stark, animalistic urgency point to the lore and landscape of the California desert as a primal source of his inspiration. The immediacy of this vision is most keenly felt in the artist's works on paper. The earliest works displayed, executed in watercolor and gouache, are depictions of abstracted nature. Over time Van Vliet gradually shed the painterly, in his later years favoring colored pencil. The late works clearly evoke a sense of primitive sound or language, eschewing the pictorial for pure and unfettered expression.
Don Van Vliet exhibited his work in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Europe, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York.
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1989
India ink, gouache, gold pigment, silver pigment on paper
20 x 13 1/2 inches
51 x 34 cm
VLZ 300
Don Van Vliet
“Untitled”, 1989
India ink, gouache, colored pencil, gold pigment on paper
20 x 13 1/2 inches
51 x 34 cm
VLZ 320
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1990
India ink, gold pigment, silver pigment on paper
24 x 18 inches
61 x 46 cm
VLZ 330
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1989
Gouache on paper
20 x 14 1/4 inches
51 x 36 cm
VLZ 485
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1989
Gouache, gold pigment on paper
20 x 14 1/4 inches
51 x 36 cm
VLZ 507
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1992
India ink, gold pigment on paper
16 x 12 1/4 inches
40.5 x 31 cm
VLZ 559
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1989
Gouache, pencil on paper
20 x 14 1/4 inches
51 x 36 cm
VLZ 490
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1989
India ink, gouache, gold pigment, silver pigment on paper
23 1/2 x 18 inches
60 x 45.5 cm
VLZ 517
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1990
India ink, gold pigment on paper
20 x 14 1/4 inches
51 x 36 cm
VLZ 546
“…some will keep going, some will stand still. Today we know what that means: evolution versus norm and norm versus evolution. In addition – what the concept of work has to do with art. Why any work is done at all, why anything is worked out and even more important, how work can proceed, what there is to work on. It’s the goals that are blurred, only the goals can change and transform the ideologies of compensation. I started with natural talent and I ended up with target-oriented will. The Captain moves between these poles. – A great figure.”
From “To Don Van Vliet” by A.R. Penck
Don Van Vliet
“Untitled”, 1987
India ink on paper
30 x 22 1/2 inches
76 x 57 cm
VLZ 212
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1985
India ink on paper
7 x 10 inches
18 x 25.5 cm
VLZ 473
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1985
India ink on paper
10 x 7 inches
25.5 x 18 cm
VLZ 471
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1985
Crayon, colored pencil on paper
10 x 7 inches
25.5 x 18 cm
VLZ 477
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1985
India ink, crayon on paper
10 x 7 inches
25.5 x 18 cm
VLZ 468
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1985
Charcoal, crayon, colored pencil on paper
10 x 7 inches
25.5 x 18 cm
VLZ 470
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1986
India ink on paper
30 x 22 1/2 inches
76.5 x 57 cm
VLZ 199
Don Van Vliet
“Untitled”, 1985
India ink, gouache on paper
10 x 7 inches
25.5 x 18 cm
VLZ 475
Don Van Vliet
“Untitled”, 1987
India ink, gouache on paper
30 x 22 1/2 inches
76 x 57 cm
VLZ 208
“The shaken ego destroyed the rules of tradition, reshaped them, resigned them, until it turned into tradition, fell back into tradition again.”
From “To Don Van Vliet” by A.R. Penck
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 610
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 592
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999-2000
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 583
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 580
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 595
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 609
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 615
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil, pen on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 587
Don Van Vliet
"Untitled", 1999
Colored pencil on paper
9 x 12 inches
23 x 30.5 cm
VLZ 585