UMMA Curator Featured Alongside Lana Del Rey and Jeff Tweedy in New Book Showcasing Life and Work of Daniel Johnston

A new book about the life and work of Daniel Johnston features essays from juggernauts in the music and art worlds including Lana Del Rey, Jeff Tweedy, Raymond Pettibon, and UMMA’s own Robin K. Williams, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The book, Daniel Johnston: I’m Afraid of What I Might Draw, showcases more than 300 drawings by the late musician and visual artist, known for his deeply personal drawings and cult-status music career.

In her essay, Williams explores Johnston’s visual art as a rich site of expression, filled with recurring characters, religious symbolism, humor, and tender emotions. She portrays Johnston as a complex mythmaker who interwove his personal life, cultural influences, and imagination in his work. Through personal anecdotes and interviews with those who knew him, she provides new insights into Johnston’s creative world, positioning his drawings not as a footnote to his music but as an essential part of his artistic legacy.

Reflecting on the process behind the piece, Williams shares:

This essay emerged from an exhibition I was fortunate to curate at my former institution, The Contemporary Austin. Daniel Johnston: I Live My Broken Dreams was the first museum survey of the artist’s work, presenting his music and visual art as a uniquely holistic expression. The exhibition featured over 200 drawings, early handmade cassette tapes, rare audio and video recordings of Johnston creating and performing, pages from his notebooks, and ephemera documenting his music and art career. It even included items from his home, such as collectable toys, comic books, and his beautiful vintage white piano. We organized the exhibition in close collaboration with his estate, particularly his brother Dick Johnston and curatorial advisor Lee Foster, who edited the Rizzoli book.

Johnston lived in Austin during a formative time in his early career, in the mid-1980s, and as a long-time Austinite, I felt it was important to explore his work within this broader historical and cultural context. I interviewed dozens of people who knew him well, striving to pierce the thick cloak of myth surrounding the artist. In the essay, I explore how the local context shaped Johnston as a maturing artist and examine him as a complex figure whose engagement with American cultural mythologies—such as superhero comics and popular music—inspired both his artwork and his artistic persona. Central to the essay is his “Hi, How Are You” mural, an icon of Austin’s visual landscape and of Johnston himself, marking his enduring legacy locally and globally.

As a curator, I have long explored the confluences of the visual and performing arts, especially music, along with in-depth explorations of place and communities. This exhibition exemplifies that practice, which I look forward to continuing here in Ann Arbor.

Lee Foster, co-owner of New York City’s famed Electric Lady Studios and curatorial advisor to the Daniel Johnston Trust, edited the book, which also includes essays by Foster and Dick Johnston, Daniel Johnston’s brother and estate executor. Additionally, the book features reflections from Lana Del Rey, Dev Hynes, Phoebe Bridgers, Jack Antonoff, Jim Jarmusch, Jeff Tweedy, Karen O, Raymond Pettibon, Daniel Caesar, and Beabadoob