Bob Dylan to showcase 'emotional' paintings in London

The Star

05-05-2025

Dylan's 'Point Blank' exhibition series started as a book of 'quick studies' that also includes accompanying prose. Photo: AFP
Bob Dylan will showcase paintings that were created with "emotional resonance" in London.
The Nobel Prize for Literature winner, 83, will bring 97 original works featuring characters, objects and scenarios to the Halcyon Gallery.
His solo show Point Blank, which captures people playing instruments, couples, sportsmen and women, along with rooms and places, is based on original sketches created between 2021 and 2022.
These drawings were then painted over with colours, to create "living, breathing entities that have emotional resonance, colours used as weapons and mood setters, a means of storytelling," Dylan says.
"The idea was not only to observe the human condition, but to throw myself into it with great urgency," he said.
The drawing studies show a mirror which displays a set of lips, a saxophonist looking introspectively at his instrument and a cowboy whose pistol hangs on his belt in front of a rising sun.
Some of the drawings have been reworked as blue, red and neutral monochromatic studies, which may hark back to Pablo Picasso's early Blue Period.
The Point Blank series started as a book of "quick studies" that also includes accompanying prose.
Kate Brown, creative director at Halcyon, said: "These works on paper feel like memories, intangible windows into the life and imagination of one of the greatest storytellers who ever lived.
"People who attend the exhibition will discover that they provoke stories from our imagination. We consider the circumstances of the protagonists and ponder our movement through the spaces that the artist depicts."
Dylan previously had an exhibition at a Halcyon Gallery for his Drawn Blank Series, featuring graphite drawings he made while he was travelling between Europe and the Americas from 1989 to 1992 and later reworked with paint.
He has said his works are a way to "relax and refocus a restless mind" amid busy touring schedules.
Paul Green, president and founder of Halcyon, said: "It is nearly 18 years since Halcyon first started working with Bob Dylan and it has been an extraordinary experience to watch this cultural icon develop into such a critically revered and important visual artist so closely.
"This latest body of paintings feels like a more intimate connection to the artist than in any of his previous work and it is a great privilege to share them with the public for the first time."
Dylan, who has won 10 Grammys and been nominated 38 times, is one of the most acclaimed songwriters, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
His songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times, with artists as varied as The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix and Adele finding both commercial and critical success with covers.
Dylan began his career in 1962 with the single Mixed-Up Confusion, which failed to chart in Britain or the US - before hitting stardom with a string of singles in 1965, including The Times They Are A-Changin', Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like A Rolling Stone.
This period of his newfound fame was recently covered in 2024 biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet as the influential folk singer.
It follows Dylan's early days in the 1960s, culminating in his controversial performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, after he had gone electric, and was nominated for eight Oscars and six Baftas.
The free exhibition Bob Dylan: Point Blank will open at 148 New Bond Street on May 9. - dpa