The Beaten Path – Bob Dylan

BOB DYLAN IS ONE OF AMERICA’S GREATEST CULTURAL FIGURES – A MAN FROM THE REMOTE PROVINCES WHO HAD THE INNER STRENGTH TO BRING HIS CREATIVE VISION TO THE WHOLE WORLD. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SEE THEMSELVES IN DYLAN’S MUSIC, POETRY AND ART

Not only is Bob Dylan one of the most iconic musicians of the modern era, he is also a painter, a sculptor, a filmmaker and a best-selling author. Dylan  has been awarded America’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, the Pulitzer Prize, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and France’s Officer de la Legion d’honneur. He has won an Oscar and eleven Grammy Awards. In 2016 Dylan became the first singer-songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and in 2019, Dylan’s first comprehensive solo museum exhibition opened in the Modern Art Museum Shanghai, Retrospectrum. Visited by over 100,000 visitors in the opening 3 months, it cemented him as one of the most important contemporary visual artists.

Bob Dylan dates the origins of his work as a visual artist to the early 1960s. A few drawings reached the public gaze with album covers like Music from Big Pink (1968) and Self Portrait (1970). In 1974, Dylan spent two seminal months studying art with Ashcan School tutor Norman Raeben, who philosophised the importance of ‘perceptual honesty’ – painting life as it as seen, not imagined. Dylan says of this time: “He put my mind and my hand and my eye together, in a way that allowed me to do consciously what I unconsciously felt.”

The artist’s journeys between cities and towns are personified by his Expressionist lines, which capture the instant moment of a place, person and time. Repeated motifs encourage the viewer to explore the depths of colour and the evolution of his work. His art has been likened to that of Pablo Picasso, with critics applauding the relatability of his collections. He paints mostly from life, stating: “I’m pretty much interested in people, histories, myth, and portraits; people of all stripes.”

The Beaten Path is Dylan’s visual chronicle of American scenery depicting iconic images as he invokes the heartland of the country. Featuring epic cityscapes alongside humble roadside motels as well as boundless, limitless railroads, this carefully curated collection of artwork offers a view into some of the most pivotal and powerful images of Dylan’s ongoing series which explores and celebrates the American landscape.

Silkscreening is a complex and highly-skilled method of reproduction. An artform in its own right, each colour is printed separately meaning the process to complete the edition can take months. As it is done by hand, there can be slight variations in each one.

As one of the most influential artists of all time, Bob Dylan has sold more than 125 million records. He is now just as revered for his fine art, which offers a unique insight into the Nobel Prize laureate’s world. Collections include Retrospectrum, The Beaten Path, The Drawn Blank Series,Mondo Scripto, The Asia Series and Deep Focus.