Casebound
240 pages
26 x 20 cm
Vali Myers
A Dream Within a Dream
TRACY SPINKS
For celebrated bohemian and international icon Vali Myers, art and life were inextricably fused. Her prescience as a dancer, a visual artist and a diarist attracted admirers that included Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, Tennessee Williams, and Joni Mitchell. But Vali was equally revered for her self-fashioned persona and alternate lifestyle shared with more than 100 animals in the remote canyon of Il Porto, Positano. This ‘kingdom by the sea’ was the well-spring of her creativity and formed the backdrop of autobiographical pen and ink drawings that are scattered in private collections across the world. From conservative Melbourne in the 1940s, to street urchin in postwar Paris, and from 1960s Italy to the counterculture scene of New York, this book shadows Vali’s footsteps and reanimates the life of an inspiring Australian visionary.
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Tracy Spinks is an art historian, writer and curator who, in 2006, completed a PhD thesis on the art and life of Vali Myers. In 2013–2014 she curated Between the Dusk and Dawn, the first major retrospective exhibition of Myers’ work, bringing together over 60 original drawings from both private national and international collections. This exhibition, hosted by La Trobe University Museum of Art, toured Victoria and NSW. Recognised worldwide as the leading authority on Vali Myers, Tracy is now collaborating with award-winning Australian film-maker Ian White to create a feature documentary on the artist’s life and legacy.
