Biography

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 the Brazil Series.

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."

About The Drawn Bank Series

Ingrid Mössinger – the curator of the Kunstsammlungen Museum in Chemitz, Germany – came across Drawn Blank during a visit to New York in 2006. Instantly excited she contacted Dylan’s team and was thrilled to learn that Dylan would agree to have his art exhibited in public for the first time.

When Dylan first drew the works in this series he had intended to create paintings based upon them. Ingrid Mössinger’s proposed exhibition encouraged him to now do this using watercolour and gouache. “I was fascinated to learn of Ingrid’s interest in my work and it gave me impetus to realize the vision I had many years on” commented Bob Dylan. These paintings formed the collection entitled The Drawn Blank Series .

Painting several versions of the same image using different colours and tones result in a dynamic variety of impressions, feelings and emotions. The choice and skill applying a different colour arrangement to the same original drawing enable Dylan to express his feelings and perception of an idea or a view, continually evoking different feelings and reactions and thus creating evolving works of art.