Bob Dylan, now 69, has been an important figure in both politics and music since the 1960s. Bob is known for his Woody Guthrie inspired folk songs of social unrest and anti-war movements. His lyrics have incorporated a variety of political, philosophical and social influences, which have continuously appealed to the socially conscious counterculture. Dylan has been known to explore and make popular many different musical genres; especially folk, rock n roll, and rockabilly. He has also incorporated gospel, jazz and even swing into his works. Bob has received many awards for his unique style using the harmonica, guitar and keyboards and for working with a number of performers. Dylan is said to be on “a never ending tour” because he has preformed all over for a number of years.
Though Dylan is perhaps most known for his songwriting ability, he doesn’t stop there. On September 4 Dylan introduced his “Brazil Series” to Copenhagen, Denmark. The Series of paintings are displayed at the Statens Museum for Kunst, which is the national gallery of Denmark. Dylan says that he has always painted and been interested in different forms of art other than singing and songwriting. Bob states that an artist must always be moving and changing. This means that his movement between the arts is natural.
This series displays 40 never before seen acrylic paintings by Bob Dylan. The collection features different scenes from Brazil’s slums, farms and beaches. The singer sketched these images during his visits to Brazil in South America. Little is known of the process in which Dylan used to create these works. Dylan told RollingStone.com, “I chose Brazil as a subject, because I have been there many times and I like the atmosphere.” The series shows Dylan’s power to observe. The images are merely things he saw while in Brazil but each of them depicts its own story. The paintings range from every day images to paintings with elements of fiction.
This is not the first time that Dylan has explored art forms other than singing and songwriting. Bob’s pictorial artwork has shown up in small scale exhibits and on various album covers. In 1994 Dylan released of book of his drawings entitled, “Drawn Blank.” Then in 2007 he included some drawings from this book as well as over 200 watercolor paintings in exhibition in Germany called, “The Drawn Blank Series.” This collection is what inspired the Danish gallery to extend an arm to Dylan and feature him in the “Brazil Series” showcase. They contacted Dylan in 2008 and began to prepare for the exhibit which is scheduled to run thought January 30, 2011. The curator of the museum, Kasper Monrad describes the paintings in relation to Dylan as, “complementary” but that they are “a different kind of imagery. The paintings and the music are two different worlds.”