Don Van Vliet, more widely known by his pseudonym Captain Beefheart, retired from music in 1982 and devoted his life to painting. Asked why he didn’t go to his own openings, he said “If I’m somewhere else, I’d rather be painting. And when I’m painting, I’d rather be alone.”
NOTE: these images were scraped from The Michael Werner Gallery. If you’ve got the scratch you can buy one. Contact the gallery at (212) 988-1623.
Galleries Painting
these are fantastic I never knew he was so good. I love his music and now I love his art
electrifying and yet ever so subtle …
Saw Don & The Magic Band perform live 3 times, and had a chance to buy one of his painting and blew it. He is one of the most underrated genius’s of the 20th Century. These paintings are stunning.
Happy Birthday Don. I haven’t seen alot of these painting. Thanks for sharing. I once gave Don a ride in my car, an amazing ride.
Don had a unique way of apprehending the world, first making his name with extraordinary musical soundscapes and then reinventing himself as a visceral visual artist. Such versatility is the hallmark of aesthetic genius.
The bar-owner wanted the venue to stay full, so he let us stay for the second show of Beefheart, second, the same night, the same venue. And the show was exactly the same. He even took his sketch book in the same song. So, well, I was really shocked by this stupidity. Later on I saw his paintings and it saved the impression left, they are wonderful and i suspect very sincere. Unfortunately he kept being ghosted by his pop-persona and the artworld took him as a caprice.