Don Van Vliet Artwork

"Chinese Brush Painting" Inscribed "to Ling" signed "love Don Van Vliet 7/2 80." Black ink on Rice Paper in frame Drawing measures 14 1/4 x 10 3/4 When I met my former wife Ling in Taipei Taiwan in the spring of 1976, she was studying Chinese brush painting, calligraphy and puppetry with an elderly Chinese master. Don was fascinated by Chinese culture, particularly Chinese art and music (pace "Trout Mask Replica"'s "Hobo Chang Ba" and "Doc at the Radar Station"'s "Sheriff of Hong Kong"—and was a big fan of 30's Shanghai pop divas Chow Hsuan and Bai Kwong, whom Ling and I introduced him to). Don came to NYC in early July 1980 to meet with the folks at Virgin Records America who were issuing our new album "Doc at the Radar Station", do some advance publicity for the release, and to master the album per se. When Don came over to our West Village apartment one day during his sojourn to NYC, Ling showed Don the rudiments of Chinese brush painting, provided him with fresh rice paper and black calligraphy ink and brush, and encouraged him to experiment in this medium. This drawing was the fascinating result.