Vali Myers

In this memoir by Vali Myers' long-time companion, Gianni Menichetti, Vali's life and life's work are brought into beautiful, clear focus with wit, candor, and great affection. Vali was an artist, dancer, actress, lover of animals and nature at-large. Uniquely original, Vali Myers has inspired countless artists for decades past and present. The artists that sought her out included Donovan, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger, Mary Ellen Clark and more. The Australian artist, Vali Myers, was a legend in her own time. Premiere danseuse of the Melbourne Modern Ballet at seventeen, she left home and spent ten years in Paris, living much of the time on the streets but never ceasing to draw. Ed van der Elsken famously put her on the cover of his Love on the Left Bank, that manifesto of Paris in the 1950's and her work was praised by George Plimpton in his Paris Review. Then, saying good-bye to all that, she spent forty years in semi-seclusion in a wild canyon in Italy, where she continued producing her minute, mystical, and passionate drawings and looking after a large menagerie of animals. Tough as nails, she fought the local authorities who wanted to introduce loggers into the valley, after a long struggle succeeding in having it designated as a wildlife oasis. Finally, Vali returned triumphant to her native Melbourne, where she was recognized as an artist sui generis. In this memoir by her long-time companion Gianni Menichetti, Vali's life and life's work are brought into beautiful, clear focus with wit, candor, and great affection. You saw in her the personalization of something torn and loose and deep down primitive in all of us.--George Plimpton, Paris Review Vali's life is as classical, as intense, as necessary, as latently tragic an artist's life as that of Vincent van Gogh or François Villon, Arthur Rimbaud or Janis Joplin.-- Ed van der Elsken, photographer Vali--the original Tightrope Dancer. Most totter along life's tightrope; Vali embraced the danger and leapt. With her fierce wild spirit, she was a familiar who swept you up in her magical world which made everything else look like a pale shade of grey.--Ruth Cullen, director - Tightrope Dance, Painted Lady It was like being friends with some angel who had gotten kicked out for lewd behavior.--Christ Stein, musician Vali Myers... lived her life without fear.--Julia Inglis, author Vali was a gift--of sea and wind.--Peter Weller, actor Vali's dogs, Vali's trees, Vali's donkey, the birds, the flowers, the caves, the spiders of Bali. We have seen for the first time the old skeleton of nature.--Bernardo Bertolucci, filmmaker Literary Nonfiction.

Known in life for her wild, red hair, intricate facial tattoos and loud gypsy jewellery, Vali Myers' indomitable spirit and authentic take on life continued to permeate through her art, inspiring and influencing those who fall under her spell. Her exceptionally detailed drawings, delicately executed at night by lamp light, often took many months, even years, to complete. This is the first comprehensive art book on Myers and collects beautiful reproductions of her work, unseen drawings and an explanatory text from a range of Myers' contemporaries.

Photographs by Ed Van der Elsken A new edition of one of the classics of photography by one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1954, and long out of print, this is a facsimile edition of the original and has been printed from the negatives held by the Netherlands Photo Archive. The work focuses on the Left Bank of Paris at the time when the area was recognised as a centre of creative ferment which would determine the cultural agenda of a generation. 200 plates.

Shout-outs to 50 awesome Australian women with easy-to-read biographies of their incredible achievements. From Cathy Freeman to Turia Pitt, Edith Cowan to Julia Gillard, Mum Shirl to Vali Myers, plus rally car drivers, molecular biologists and more, this book is a celebration of women in all fields, from all walks of life, and from Australia's past and present.

An immersive photographic tour of the legendary Hotel Chelsea, whose residents share their spaces, their stories, and a delirious collective history of this landmark. Jackson Pollock, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs, Janis Joplin, Eugene O'Neill, Rufus Wainwright, Betsey Johnson, R. Crumb, Thomas Wolfe, Jasper Johns—these are just a few of the figures who at one time occupied one of the most alluring and storied residences ever: the Chelsea Hotel. Born during the Gilded Age and once the tallest building in New York, the twelve-story landmark has long been a magnet for artists, writers, musicians, and cultural provocateurs of all stripes. In this book, photographer Colin Miller and writer Ray Mock intimately portray the enduring bohemian spirit of the Chelsea Hotel through interviews with nearly two dozen current residents and richly detailed photographs of their unique spaces. As documented in Miller's abundant photographs, these apartments project the quirky decorating sensibilities of urban aesthetes who largely work in film, theater, and the visual arts, resulting in deliriously ornamental spaces with a kitschy edge. Weathering the overall homogenization of New York and the rapid transformation of the hotel itself—amid recent ownership changeovers and tenant lawsuits—residents remain in about seventy apartments while the rest of the units are converted to rentals (and revert to a hotel-stay basis, which had ceased in 2011). For the community of artists and intellectuals who remain, the uncertain status of the hotel is just another stage in a roller-coaster history. A fascinating portrait of a strand of resilient bohemian New Yorkers and their creative, deeply idiosyncratic homes, Hotel Chelsea is a rich visual and narrative document of a cultural destination as complicated as it is mythical.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, London-based Big O Posters helped define the new and democratic art medium of the psychedelic poster, a vehicle for rebellion against the old order that went hand in hand with the music, literature, and film of the time. This is a comprehensive collection of works published by Big O artists, astonishingly creative folks whose artistry developed almost completely outside the influence of the art establishment. Included in more than 300 images are works by 19 artists, including Martin Sharp, Roger Dean, H.R. Giger, Robert Venosa, and Vali Myers whose signature styles include sci-fi, fantasy, visionary, botanical, and surrealism. In addition to hundreds of original works, this book digs below the surface to offer insights and anecdotes about the era, the artistic process, and reveals connections to artists from the past (Aubrey Beardsley, Alphonse Mucha, Kay Nielsen) whose spirit chimed with the age of Big O Posters.

Award-winning creators, Amy Novesky and Isabelle Arsenault, present a picture book biography of a beloved artist in Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was a world-renowned modern artist noted for her sculptures made of wood, steel, stone, and cast rubber. Her most famous spider sculpture, Maman, stands more than 30 feet high. Just as spiders spin and repair their webs, Louise’s own mother was a weaver of tapestries. Louise spent her childhood in France as an apprentice to her mother before she became a tapestry artist herself. She worked with fabric throughout her career, and this biographical picture book shows how Bourgeois’s childhood experiences weaving with her loving, nurturing mother provided the inspiration for her most famous works. With a beautifully nuanced and poetic story, this book stunningly captures the relationship between mother and daughter and illuminates how memories are woven into us all. “With evocative, gorgeous illustrations and an inspirational story of an artist not often covered in children’s literature, this arresting volume is an excellent addition to nonfiction picture book collections, particularly those lacking titles about women artists.” —Booklist, starred review