Bob Dylan - 'Drawn Blank series' review

wurdsmyth

Hi Pickles

Here's the Bob Dylan exhibition review, as promised!
(Only just recovered from the free champagne, *hic!*)

Hope it's OK!

Miranda x

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Still Life with Bob
by Miranda Dickinson

Bob Dylan: The Musician, The Legend – but now, The Painter?

Ever the public chameleon, Bob Dylan reveals yet another persona to the world with the launch of his Drawn Blank Series at London’s Halcyon Gallery.

The series stems from Drawn Blank, a book of sketches created whilst touring in the late ‘80’s, which Dylan published in 1994. The original drawings disappeared – a fact only discovered when a German gallery asked Dylan to create an exhibition. Consequently, all the paintings now on display are reworkings based on the originals.

On first view, the exhibition feels a bit like looking through someone else’s random photo collection; some images are the artistic equivalent of pictures you take by mistake. There’s a painting of a lamp on a bedside table, for instance; and another of a bunk bed and television by a venetian-blinded window.

Interestingly, there are practically no references to ‘Bob Dylan The Musician’, except for one picture with a guitar and another, Still Life With Peaches, which appears to be set in a dressing room somewhere on his famously-monikered ‘Never Ending Tour’.

Despite the hype surrounding the exhibition – amid suggestions that few would be interested in the works if the artist weren’t a legendary musician – you don’t get the impression that Dylan is arrogantly showcasing his work as a kind of multi-hued ego trip. The paintings are more a unique insight into how the artist views his world – finding ordinary details fascinating.

A harsh critic may suggest that the work is sometimes amateurish in execution – his figures have little finesse and his bold colour variations can seem childish. But taken as a whole, the collection offers a charming, naive snapshot of people and places encountered by one man who just happens to be famous.

Bob Dylan: Drawn Blank Series is at The Halcyon Gallery, Bruton Street, Mayfair, London,
from 14th June – 13th July www.halcyongallery.com

(298 words)

pickles · MyVillage Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 297 Location: Kernow

hi mirander

great article - sharp, informative and opinionated - just what we like :)

i've contacted the gallery in search of an image to use alongside your text, so once i have this i can publish the article, and will post your link here.

best wishes and thanks again.

s

wurdsmyth · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:23 am Post subject:

Glad you liked it!

Any news on the image from the gallery?

Miranda :D

pickles · MyVillage Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 297 Location: Kernow

still waiting, but i'll chase them today.

ta
s

pickles · MyVillage Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 297 Location: Kernow

hi miranda

sorry for the delay with this, the gallery were rather slow with supplying the image :(

review is great, have posted it live and it'll be getting lots of promotion via all london home pages and what's on pages over the next couple of days.

http://www.myvillage.com/brixton/fe-arts_bob-dylan.htm

best wishes

s