While Dylan’s devotion to Norman Raeburn’s school of painting unlocked something within and afforded him whole new imaginational leaps in songwriting prior to the recording of Blood On The Tracks, his visual art has always sat in the shadows, underneath a gargantuan body of music. The hilariously shonky art for the hilariously shonky Self Portrait, and the really rather beautiful sleeve to the The Band’s self-titled debut aside, only the devoted have really paid much attention to his Bobness’ work on canvas.
Currently coming to the end of their exhibition at the National Gallery Of Denmark are the acrylic works collected here, and which were painted between 2009-10. Some (The Eaters, Bahia) are wonderful; others, such as The Card Player, will make the seasoned Bobcat smile knowingly at aspects of a scene that Dylan obviously found so eyecatching; others still (The Tale Bearer) are as inscrutable as the man himself remains.
Lovingly compiled, Dylan’s commitment to his visual art is clearly as strong as his musical one (we’re told he was more than happy to collaborate on both exhibition and book). But, while The Brazil Series offers some enjoyable works, there are plenty of others that could easily have been picked up as postcards in Rio. Whether this will grace your coffee table will largely hang on how much you love Bob. Or Brazil. Or both.
