Gus Van Sant’s “Untitled”, 2011, watercolor on paper, 24 x 18" (61 x 45.7 cm), courtesy of Gagosian Gallery, photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio
It would be a disservice to call Gus Van Sant a multihyphenate. It’s a term that, yes, implies multiple talents—but in a way that suggests that the subject dabbles, a jack of all trades but master of none. Instead, the more apt term for Van Sant is multipotentialite: someone who excels highly in multiple fields.
Of course, Van Sant is known best for filmmaking, having directed Academy Award–nominated films like Good Will Hunting and Milk. But he’s also a painter. He showed work in the group show “Unfinished” at Gagosian Gallery, and did a solo exhibit with Vito Schnabel Gallery in New York in 2019, as well as one in St. Moritz in 2021. And today he publishes a monograph on his paintings: Gus Van Sant: Paintings with Blue Moon Press, just in time for the mega-art-fair Frieze Los Angeles.