Bob Dylan
The Beaten Path | 2024

Much like the 1950s photographer Robert Frank, Dylan chronicles life as it is lived by the people whose names are never printed in the newspaper. And those people are brought more into focus in this collection, unlike Dylan’s previous works, which were known for their distinct absence of figures, yet undeniable humanity.

In this latest chapter capturing the American landscape, we see more of residential living. People walking on tree-lined streets, musicians playing music outside a New Orleans home; this carefully curated collection of artwork offers a new perspective from Dylan in his unfolding portrait of America.

In his own words, the collection captures America “how you see it while crisscrossing the land and see it for what it's worth. Staying out of the mainstream and traveling the back roads, free born style”.

Featured Art: 'Hamburger Kuku'. Hand-signed Giclée on Paper Limited Edition by Bob Dylan.

He joins artists such as Ed Ruscha, Edward Hopper and Richard Diebenkorn in their fascination with representing their own America. For Dylan, the country’s highways, city streets and back roads have been an endless influence on both his lyrics and visual art for decades.

“Creatively, I couldn’t live anywhere but America, because I understand the tone behind the language.

I feel at home in America because, as primitive as it is, I still can create from America. All my feelings come out of America”.

Bob Dylan, Melody Maker, 1978

Featured Art: 'Sound of Music'. Hand-signed Giclée on Paper Limited Edition by Bob Dylan.

The Beaten Path limited-edition series was first launched in 2016, following his The Drawn Blank series, both of which have enjoyed great success among our collectors.

The Beaten Path is Dylan's visual chronicle of American scenery depicting iconic images as he invokes the heartland of the country.

Featuring epic cityscapes alongside humble roadside motels as well as boundless, limitless railroads, this carefully curated collection of artwork offers a view into some of the most pivotal and powerful images of Dylan's ongoing series which explores and celebrates the American landscape.

Featured Art: 'Brooklyn Heights'. Hand-signed Giclée on Paper Limited Edition by Bob Dylan.

Since releasing his debut studio album in 1962, Dylan's cultural influence has extended beyond music to encompass literature and art. In 2016, he became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Such is his effect on wider culture that Dylan's work has been studied in thousands of university courses. At Harvard University, Dylan's work is taught by its Professor of the Classics, Richard F. Thomas, alongside the Roman poets Ovid and Virgil. T.S. Eliot scholar and author of the Oxford Book of English Verse, Christopher Ricks, has called Dylan “the greatest living user of the English language.”

Understanding Dylan's art aids in the appreciation of his singular cultural impact. His art - paintings, drawings and ironwork sculptures reflect his creative journey. An observer of the world, Dylan echoes Warhol, Monet and the Impressionists, valuing the experience over the finer details of the finished image. Of his paintings, he writes: “Every picture spoke a different language to me as the various colours were applied.”