| Expression—artistic expression—is a common enough trait in New York City. Not that location defines creativity, hardly. But New York can “’stamp”’ art as either getting through the gate or getting banished to the land of obscurity. It’s interesting then, that the first museum exhibition of Bob Dylan’s paintings was held in a small German city. |  |
Expression—artistic expression—is a common enough trait in New York City. Not that location defines creativity, hardly, but New York can “stamp” art as either getting through the gate or getting banished to the land of obscurity. It’s interesting then, that the first museum exhibition of Bob Dylan’s paintings was held in a small German city.
Dylan made watercolors and gouaches for the show. He is the perennial traveler, the on-the-road observer. And, if one looks, a truly American observer. Some 170 of these new works will be on view through February in Germany’s Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. This is a group of works that show a keen eye for line and color as form, capturing a moment, holding it there, then releasing it. The works are figurative, as in Woman In Red Lion Pub a work on watercolor paper showing the back of a rather healthy woman in beret and a blue-grey sleeveless dress with light red stockings, standing at the bar. There is a comfortable lightness and humor here, and Dylan’s lines are mature and not over-accentuated.
In Man On A Bridge Dylan shows a standing figure, blue coat, slight beard and mustache, looking down, eyes closed, a background scene of buildings and a towering structure on the right. The colors are mainly sandy—greys, browns—his blue coat is brushed expressively, the roughness of the strokes relaying the atmosphere. In Cupid Doll there is a profile of a female facing left in a dark coat, her hair a sun yellow, the eye covered by hair, we have the nose and lips and a bit of the chin intersected by the coat. The whole feeling is intimate, small.
In Train Tracks Dylan has rendered the tracks, platform, and mountains in an appealingly humble manner, simple and telling. There is an uncomplicated truth and beauty to simple things, and the artist warms to that idea. The tracks become the rhythm of mystery, the unknown.
Dylan has expressed his partiality for certain painters, notably Red Grooms, Diego Velazquez, Goya, Delacroix. A mix of time and era, but consistent in spirit. Some of the Dylan works share the fatalistic element which speak eloquently in Goya—or as Dylan has said, "Ain’t dark yet/ but it’s gettin’ there." But lest this cast a pall over the body of Dylan’s works, be assured that in the majority of these, there is a lighter, amused stance—a circus of character and place and random buoyancy. To glimpse again at his words, "My ship’s been split to splinters and it’s sinking fast/ I’m drownin’ in the poison, got no future, got no past/ But my heart is not weary, it’s light and it’s free/ I’ve got nothin’ but affection for all those who’ve sailed with me." (From "Mississippi," 1997, Special Rider Music.)
That the artist can convey this range of viewpoints is a testament to his draughtmanship and brush. Where other artists may have the skillful cleverness to direct their second passion to completion, whatever the secondary interest may be, here it becomes obvious after spending time with these art works that Dylan expresses himself as succinctly and intriguingly with painting as he does with the written word and music.
The art world has always been and continues to be fickle—today’s fifty-million-dollar diamond-encrusted skull will be tomorrow’s vacant lot. But these Dylan offerings will have their permanent place and time, even surrounded by a swirling cascade of art hucksters and real estate moguls. And that’s because his art is from the heart and he’s talented enough to make it work.
Ingrid Mossinger, director of the museum in Chemnitz, had seen works in the Bob Dylan Morgan Library Museum Collection, was impressed, and pursued the idea of showing new works in Germany. And it’s a good thing she did. An extensive catalogue publication in color and black and white of these artworks, edited by Mossinger and Kerstin Drechsel, including essays, published by Prestel Munich, London, and New York, will be released soon.
