About Vali Myers
Vali Myers was a unique spirit born out of time. She lived her extraordinary life like a bright flame, cutting her own unique path and living on her own terms: a tightrope walker - one foot in this world and one in a dreamworld that we can only glimpse in her profound artwork.
Artist, dancer, shamaness, muse and powerful creatrix, Vali left a body of work which started with her early drawings in the cafes of Paris in 1950 and spanned till her death in 2003.
Let it all be animal, my life and death, hard and clean like that, anything but human... a lot I care, me with my red heart in the dark earth and my tattooed feet following the animal ways.
Diary entry: 1963
Her Inspiration
The artwork and diaries that she leaves behind are made of pure fire: energetic food for artists, writers, creators and lovers of the natural world. Vali put every ounce of her spirit into living and through her legacy we hope it inspires the same flame of life to live on in you.
As an artist, her work rests with adoring fans and museums around the world, as a muse she inspired many people ranging from photographer Ed van der Elsken, who made her the central character in his classic book and film "Love On The Left Bank" to Tennessee Williams who based the character Carol on her in his play "Orpheus Descending".
Award winning film director Bernardo Bertolucci described her as a force of nature: "Vali's dogs, Vali's trees, Vali's donkey, the birds, the flowers, the caves, the spiders of Vali. We have seen for the first time the old skeleton of nature."
She had an enormous impact on all who encountered her whether it was through her art, or through one of the four films made about her.
She inspired other artists such as renowned photographers Diane Arbus and Francesco Scavullo who both photographed her and musicians Deborah Harry, Marianne Faithfull and Devendra Banhart. George Plimpton, editor of the Paris Review, was an early fan and responsible for one of the first articles in the later '50s which looked at her work. What they all responded to was her wild spirit which manifested itself in her paintings, in dancing, in her life.
She was fearless, intoxicating and like no other.
