Bob Dylan

We are delighted to present additions to Bob Dylan’s The Beaten Path, The Silkscreen Collection, comprising hand-signed coloured silkscreen limited-editions of the artist's most iconic images, exclusively from Castle Fine Art.

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.”

This six-print collection is the latest chapter in Dylan's visual chronicle of American scenery depicting iconic images as he traces 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. The Beaten Path limited edition series was first launched in 2016 and was Dylan’s first major programme since The Drawn Blank Series enjoying great success among our collectors.

Says Dylan: “The common theme of these works is how you see the American landscape while crisscrossing the land and seeing it for what it’s worth. Staying out of the mainstream and travelling the back roads, free born style. “My idea was to keep things simple, only dealing with what is externally visible. These paintings are up-to-the-moment realism – archaic, most static, but quivering in appearance. They contradict the modern world.”

Referring to a cinematic technique that communicates narrative through the foreground, middle, and background, rather than focusing on one visual plane over another, Deep Focus captures four remarkable scenes; available individually or as a portfolio set of four. Depicting figures and portraits influenced by world cinema, the series showcases Dylan's ever-evolving artistic vision. All pieces in the Deep Focus series have been expertly made in the UK using the some of the best printing technology. Produced on a flatbed printer, you'll see a brushstroke-like finish paired with extremely vivid colours that completely lend themselves to this new program from Bob Dylan.

The title of the series refers to a cinematic technique that communicates narrative through the foreground, middle and background, rather than focusing on one visual plane over another. Completed in 2021, the series borrows visual techniques from film and photography, and illustrates how cropping and framing can alter the viewer’s perception of any scene. “All these images come from films. They try to highlight the different predicaments that people find themselves in,” Dylan explains. “Whether it’s James Cagney or Margaret Rutherford, the dreams and schemes are the same – life as it’s coming at you in all its forms and shapes.”

Dylan’s cinematic references result in evocative, often mysterious, compositions suspended between life and theatre, while conjuring a distinctly tangible pictorial experience. Although these new works more prominently depict figures and portraits, much of the iconography that was featured in Dylan’s earlier series The Beaten Path is still recognisable – diners, motels, roadsides and city streets.

Bob Dylan's 2021 release sees two of the first-ever paintings from his iconic The Drawn Blank Series collection recreated as an exclusive set of limited edition graphics.

Originally released in 2008, The Drawn Blank Series reimagines the personal sketches Dylan created between 1989 and 1992 whilst touring America, Europe and Asia. The original drawings of landscapes, hotel scenes and nudes debuted to huge critical acclaim, with the bold colours and free style drawing comparisons to the art of Pablo Picasso.

A visual reflection on his travels in Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea, The Asia Series by Bob Dylan was unlike anything we had released before. The four hand-signed limited edition graphics depict beautiful scenes of people, interiors, architecture and landscapes. Dylan drew upon a variety of source material, from observational sketches to archival film and photography. Executed in muted, evocative colours, his paintings follows the order of natural reality; in the artist’s words, ‘the idea is to keep everything where it should be’.

Released in July 2020, this sold-out curation of limited edition giclée prints by the legendary musician and Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan reimagined one of his most iconic graphics.

Since 2008, 'Train Tracks' has engaged collectors from around the world. Originally taken from The Drawn Blank Series, the image has since been reworked by Dylan for several collections, including his 2010 portfolio. Renowned art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon explains: "His Train Tracks images seem particularly charged with romantic feeling. The paintings of railway tracks are like pictures of the feelings embodied in the itinerant folk song-writing traditions of America...to which Dylan has always felt close."

The Beaten Path saw Bob Dylan turn his attention to the American landscape in 2016. It is a celebration of his own well-travelled path through a country which continues to enthral, charm and captivate. Both the first series and its follow-up releases in 2017 and 2019 invite viewers to accompany Dylan on his travels as he criss-crosses the USA through the backstreets, alleys and country roads. Hand-signed by Dylan himself, each artwork offers an insight into his world and illustrates an artistry that has transcended every generation. 

Transcending language, culture and class, The Brazil Series is celebrated for its down-to-earth depiction of a country that deeply inspired him whilst on tour.

Whilst in Brazil, the Nobel Prize winning artist was captured by its beauty and diversity. Outside of rehearsing and performing, he sought to gain an understanding and respect for the people and their culture. The original 2015 collection reveals how his real-life observations shunned a romantic view of the country in favour of textured depictions of ramshackle favelas and genuine community spirit, heightened by rusty browns and ochre shades. By using perspective and dimension, he encourages viewers to relax into the kaleidoscope of colours and hear the music.

A follow-up release later that year, The Brazil Series II, saw a further three images - ‘Favela Villa Candido’, ‘Grande Árvore Beachfront’ and ‘Wagon Master’ - realised in his signature style. Viewers may note the tonal greens and blues, which have been likened to those of Cézanne - one of Dylan’s favourite Impressionists.

The Mondo Scripto collection features a selection of his most renowned lyrics, each originally handwritten by him in pen on paper and accompanied by a pencil drawing. Offering the first-ever visual representation of the artist's lyrics, this groundbreaking release was showcased at the Halcyon Gallery in London in October 2018 and was featured in Vogue and the Evening Standard. Since then, it has featured in Dylan's Retrospectrum exhibition, which has now opened at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami after launching at MAM Shanghai, Today's Art Museum in Beijing, and the Jupiter Museum of Art in Shenzhen.

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