Stand Up To Be Discontinued.
Die Malerei von Don van Vliet / The Art of Don van Vliet
Don Van Vliet
Published by Cantz
Paperback £21.95
1993 ISBN 3-9801320-2-1
Hardback Limited Edition (1500) with CD £32.50
1993 ISBN 3-9801320-3-X
Deluxe Slip Cased Limited Edition (120) with original etching £180.00
1994
136 pages with 70 colour plates
Contents:
Don van Vliet in Bielefeld: Andreas Beaugrand
Animals and Black Ladies: Karsten Ohrt
Don van Vliet - The Painting: Jessica Rutherford
"Stand Up To Be Discontinued". On Don van Vliet as
Painter and Musician: Paolo Bianchi
Pearls before Swine. Ice Cream for Crow. On the Relationship
between Music and Painting in Captain Beefheart's Work: Luca Ferrari
I Like The Way The Doo Dads Fly
Captain Beefheart: Diedrich Diedrichsen
Don van Vliet: Roberto Ohrt
Fur Don van Vliet: A.R.Penck
Sketch for a Poem for Don van Vliet 8/93: A.R.Penck
Don van Vliet Biography/Exhibitions
Literaturey
List of Illustrations
Don van Vliet Poetry Reading Sequence
Overview by Steve Froy
If you're interested in Don's artwork then this is
the book to get (if you can lay your hands on a copy that is!) A
high quality artefact, beautifully designed, printed and packaged.
There are 70 stunning colour plates ... okay, they're not the same
as seeing the original painting but it's the next best thing. Apparently,
it did get Don's approval although he had some reservations about
certain essays that are included.
Published to coincide with the wonderful travelling
exhibition of the same name there are also a number of articles
about Don's art from the curators of the various galleries that
staged the exhibition. These are a fascinating read, attempting
to put Don within the context of 20th Century Art they're inclined
to often disappear up their own profundity. This is done in both
English and German.
The one disappointment in the book is a poem, or rather,
a piece of self-indulgent crap written by A.R. Penck called 'Fur
Don Van Vliet' which is basically the same ten line verse repeated
too many times with a few variations and takes up 8 pages when a
good editor could have made a decent one page poem out of it, -
what a waste of paper.!
Although this book concentrates on Don the painter,
and despite attempts to shed the rock musician background to gain
acceptance in the 'Art World', some concessions have been made to
include articles about his alter ego, Captain Beefheart. This takes
the form of (photo)copies of articles from musical papers such as
Melody Maker, Sounds and New York Rocker.
There is also a list of other exhibitions of Don's
artwork plus a bibliography that, although not comprehensive, included
a number of obscure items not previously known about.
The hardback edition came with a CD single, within
a plastic sleeve securely fitted to the inside back cover, containing
six poems - Fallin' Ditch, The Tired Plain, Skeleton Makes Good,
Safe Sex Drill, Tulip, Gil - read by Don himself. This was an extra
exciting prospect as next to nothing had been recorded by Don for
a decade. But, like many others, when I heard it I couldn't believe
how ill Don sounded, it was seriously depressing at the time.
I have never seen a copy of the very limited deluxe
edition but I understand there were two different etchings used,
i.e. 60 of each.
Pretty much essential!!
Availability
If anyone has copies of this book left it would be the Michael
Werner Gallery, although they are only likely to have the very expensive
limited edition. Copies have turned up on ebay over the past few
years. Another good source to check out is www.abebooks.co.uk
If this situation changes, or you know of anywhere selling this
book, please let me know.