The largest Bob Dylan artwork collection ever seen will go on display later this year in the United States. Featuring more than 120 of the artist’s paintings, drawings and sculptures, Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum covers six decades of art by the folk legend.
Florida International University will be hosting the first-ever exhibit of the singer/songwriter’s visual artwork in the U.S., announced for this Autumn. Much of his work is the embodiment of Dylan’s deep affinity with the land of the free from constant travel through the US, and this exhibit is no different.
One Too Many, from 2020 features a man slumped over a smoky bar counter at the end of a night, and another Subway Cityscape, also from 2020, showcase’s Dylan’s love of industrial urban city scenes.
The exhibition has been announced for November 30th and will take place at the university’s Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum. Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum, will feature more than 120 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by the folk legend, spanning six decades. The exhibit will continue to be on view from November 30th, all the way through to April 17th, 2022.
Dylan’s work has been shown in the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Denmark, and the Palazzo Reale in Milan. It was also shown during the Shanghai exhibition at the Modern Art Museum, the most visited exhibition in the city in 2019.
During the exhibit’s opening week, the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab (WPHL), FIU’s humanities and arts hub, will present DYLAN@FIU, a symposium exploring Bob Dylan’s career and cultural influence, timed to coincide with Miami Art Week.
The Drawn Blank Series, Bob Dylan’s first artwork exhibition, was unveiled at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany in 2007. Retrospectrum was initially conceived for the Modern Art Museum (MAM) in Shanghai, China, where it first opened in 2019.
“Bob Dylan is a seminal artist, rightly recognized as one of the defining figures of popular culture for more than half a century,” Shai Baitel, the artistic director of Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai, said in a statement. “We saw the profound impact and reach of Dylan’s work in Shanghai, where hundreds of thousands came to experience and engage with his remarkable creativity, unique observations, and social commentary.”
FIU president Mark B. Rosenberg added: “When I saw the catalogue representing the beautiful and comprehensive Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum exhibition that premiered in Shanghai in 2019, I knew immediately that I wanted to bring this iconic artist’s rarely seen visual works to South Florida, to be enjoyed by our students, our broader community and visitors from across the country and around the globe.”
As well as showcasing Dylan’s journey through his artistic landscape, the new exhibition will include curated, immersive and interactive displays of his music and literary works. The exhibition adds context of multi-talented folk legend and his impact on popular culture, which spans over half a century.
Many artists are paying tribute to Dylan for his 80th birthday, with Paul McCartney revealing a hidden memory of the star last month. The Beatles singer/guitarist, McCartney recalled how the band got stoned with the folk legend at the Delmonico Hotel, New York, in 1964. Speaking to Uncut, McCartney said “I’m not sure whether he’s very keen on me telling this, but here we go”. Read more here.
