(1946)

 

David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker and visual artist. Over a lengthy career, Lynch has employed a distinctive and unorthodox approach to narrative filmmaking (dubbed Lynchian), which has become instantly recognizable to many audiences and critics worldwide. Lynch's films are known for nightmarish and dreamlike images and meticulously crafted sound design. Lynch's work often depicts a seedy underside of small town America (particularly Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks), or sprawling California metropolises (Lost Highway, Muholland Drive and the latest Inland Empire). Beginning with his experimental film school feature Eraserhead (1977), he has maintained a strong cult following despite inconsistent commercial success. Lynch has received three  Academy Award nominations for Best director, for his films The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001), and has also received a screenplay Academy Award nomination for The Elephant Man. Lynch has twice won France's César for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival  and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, the country's top civilian honor, as Chevalier in 2002 and then Officier in 2007, whilst that same year, The guardian described Lynch as "the most important director of this era".  Lynch maintains an interest in other art forms. He described the twentieth-century artist Francis Bacon as "to me, the main guy, the number one kinda hero painter". He continues to present art installations and stage designs. In his spare time, he also designs and builds furniture. He started building furniture from his own designs as far back as his art school days. He built sheds during the making of Eraserhead, and many of the sets and furniture used in that movie are made by Lynch. He also made some of the furniture for Fred Madison's house in Lost Highway. Lynch was the subject of a major art retrospective at the Fondation Cartier, Paris from March May 3–27, 2007. The show was entitled The Air is on Fire and included numerous paintings, photographs, drawings, alternative films and sound work. New site-specific art installations were created specially for the exhibition. A series of events accompanied the exhibition including live performances and concerts. Some of Lynch's art include photographs of dissected chickens and other animals as a "Build your own Chicken" toy ad. Between 1983 and 1992, Lynch wrote and drew a weekly comic strip called The Angriest Dog in the World called for the L.A. Reader. The drawings in the panels never change, just the captions.