This is the wizard’s latest acquisition of offbeat Quixote images.
At 4 feet wide, it’s the biggest woodcut print I’ve ever seen. It’s called Don Quixote and The Hounds and it was done in 1956 by Don LaViere Turner when he was just 26 years old. The style is usually referred to as German Expressionist. Looks like something from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, doesn’t it? There are only 24 of these in the world, and they never come up for sale. Last week, the University of Texas asked if they can borrow this one for a major exhibit. You’ll find it in the Don and Sherry Kuhl Art Gallery beneath the tower the next time you’re on campus.
Don LaViere Turner passed away in 1997. When you look at the body of work he left behind, he’s an interesting fellow. Here’s what he wrote in 1965:
Just straight out, in a Whitman manner, I’d like to say that I, Don LaViere Turner, in my 35th year and in perfect health . . . am afoot with my visions . . . I dote on myself and my vision . . . of Wisconsin the son . . . therefore wet and cold, trembling and with all colors turbulent to mostly black and gray, turgid with hazes and thin lights, wrapped in change . . . brittle too. Intemperate and rapt, fleshy as worms, sensual as cats, screaming words like a Jay, even bellowing . . . and icy from unused places . . . eating, learning, drinking and breeding . . . looking rife and love, finding what I can . . . fashioning after failures, fixing erosions with any invention and every strength . . . making whatever gesture . . . down whatever way (unbending). In short, whatever you place and particulars, just as you are, just as you yourself would, or could, or have done. And after it’s said, say as well . . . unscrew the locks, unscrew the doors, rip out the jambs . . . here or henceforward, it is all the same to me . . . I exist, as I am . . . that is enough.”