Another side of Bob Dylan goes on show

Published on Thursday 29 January 2009 09:10

BENEATH a burnt-orange sky, the train tracks disappear into the mountains – where they are heading is anyone's guess.

Created by Bob Dylan, one of the world's most influential singer-songwriters, its artistic merit and worth are likely to be keenly debated when it goes on public display in Edinburgh at the weekend.

Amid tight security, Train Tracks is one of 104 original paintings by the American legend to have arrived in the Capital, along with a selection of limited-edition prints for Dylan enthusiasts to buy, with a price tag of 5000.

This is the first time the works will be shown in the UK outside of London, where critical acclaim for them made headlines across the world.

Staff at the City Art Centre were yesterday preparing for the exhibition, titled The Drawn Blank Series, by carefully unpacking the treasured prints and hanging them in the Market Street attraction in time for Saturday's opening.

Manager Ian O'Riordan said: "There is a power and a potency in the pieces. I really like them. You never know what is going to happen before an exhibition, but we are expecting this one to be really popular. There are very few people who have not heard of Bob Dylan."

The musician created the pieces from drawings and sketches he made while touring the world between 1989 and 1992, visually echoing much of his music, prose and poetry, with their observations of the everyday world.

The Drawn Blank Series was first shown in the UK last June, at the Halcyon Gallery in London, with visitors both complementing and criticising its works, many drawing comparisons to the Impressionists, and works by Matisse, Picasso and Andy Warhol.

Halcyon president Paul Green said: "Dylan takes his art very seriously – it is very important to him.

"We were absolutely mobbed when the exhibition was here. There were people who were interested in him, people who were not fans of his and those who loved the art simply for what it was."

Dylan famously criticised galleries and museums in the 1960s, calling them "cemeteries", insisting that paintings should instead be hung on the walls of restaurants, petrol stations and toilets.

Now, as he once again allows his own art to come under the critical eye of gallery-goers, some critics believe Dylan's work should be seen for what it is – an ordinary man making observations about the world. In the book that accompanies the exhibition, critic Andrew Graham-Dixon writes that the paintings are the work of someone "who is emphatically not buying into his own mummification as a genius or guru . . . This is implicit in their sheer matter-of-factness and informality, their glancing encounters with the stuff of everyday existence."

He continues: "They are grounded in the ordinary and the mundane and might almost have been created by the artist to remind himself that, no matter what anyone says, he is just a man."

The Drawn Blank Series runs at the City Art Centre from January 31 to March 15. Admission is free.

STRINGING THE CRITICS ALONG

WHAT did two of Edinburgh's art critics make of Guitar Player . . . without knowing it was by Bob Dylan?

Richard Demarco CBE, artist: "Guitar Player is an eye-catching image and has the essence of a true portrait. The method of applying the paint and mixed media to the surface of the paper is well-considered. The image suggests a sense of the isolation which artists experience in the process of making art. There is a confidence in the mark-making.

"It is noteworthy that the player is not actually depicted playing the guitar. I am tempted to give the painting an alternative title – The Loneliness of the Serious Artist with reference, of course, to the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. I admire the fact that the artist does not have the appearance of a heroic figure. We are in the presence of someone prepared to think and to work hard within the ambience of what could be a studio from whose windows one can observe a garden-scape and consider the beauty of nature."

And on learning it was by Dylan: "I honestly did not think it was his. My remarks still hold though. The 'loneliness' aspect – he has that."

Iain Gale, art critic and novelist: "I think it looks like somebody has been looking at too much Matisse – that seems obvious and it is not very original. It would probably sell well in London as it would look good in a contempo-rary flat, but it is hard to put a price on it. It certainly isn't bad, but it is not great. I don't think this artist is going to be the next Damien Hurst."

And on learning it was by Dylan: "He's a great musician, but a mediocre artist. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Perhaps musicians should stick to what they are best at. Good luck to him – it's a pleasant painting to hang on your wall. "