Tuesday, September 15, 2009


Bob Dylan has shape-shifted more times in his career than any other pop musician. His music has always reflected that need to seek out new forms of self-expression. What's less known is that his paintings function in the same way -- providing virtual chapter markings and sign posts in a lifetime filled with twists and turns.

In a museum show that's scheduled to open in Europe in 2010, Dylan will exhibit nearly 100 of his works, including the world premiere of 30 large-format paintings from the artist's upcoming "Brazil" series. The show will also feature original paintings from Dylan's "The Drawn Blank" series.

The exhibition is scheduled to open in the autumn of 2010 at the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) in Copenhagen.

Publicists for the show were able to provide images of two works that will appear at the museum. Both images come from Dylan's "The Drawn Blank" series.

In the first image (above), titled "Train Tracks" (2009), Dylan revisits his obsession with railway tracks that he has depicted in numerous paintings in the past. This latest variation features a blood-red sky dominating an anonymous rural landscape. The earth seems to reflect the hues of the sky as the railway stretches into infinity.


In the second image (below), titled "Man on a Bridge" (2009), Dylan once again depicts a favorite visual subject -- a man in a hat standing solitary in what appears to be a European city. The musician has created many variations on this striking composition.

In a statement, the museum's chief curator, Kasper Monrad, said that several of Dylan's images "reveal an affinity for some of the modernist masters, not least Henri Matisse's works from the 1920s."

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