Knockin’ on the National Gallery’s door

Denmark’s national art museum will exhibit numerous paintings by musician Bob Dylan – including some never before displayed. Around 100 paintings by musician Bob Dylan – including some previously unseen works – will be displayed at the National Gallery next autumn.

Museum spokesman Jakob Fibiger Andreasen said Dylan had expressed interested in having his work displayed at the museum because of its large collection by Matisse, who is a clear influence on the singer-songwriter’s art.

Dylan’s paintings have received considerable critical acclaim and include watercolours, sketches and acrylic paintings. He only began exhibiting in 2007, after the curator for the Chemnitz Art Gallery in Germany asked him if he would like to display there.

According to the National Gallery, around 30 works from Dylan’s forthcoming Brazil Series will have their premier at the museum next autumn.

Kasper Monrad, the National Gallery’s curator, said that many of Dylan’s paintings are clearly in the modernist style, with a particular nod to Matisse’s works from the 1920s.

‘And that context is particularly interesting in light of the National Gallery’s unique collection of Matisse's early works,’ said Monrad. ‘By the same token the motif choices, the distinctive expressiveness and the existential undertones in Bob Dylan’s works create a visual image which is unmistakably the artist's own.’

In connection with the exhibition the National Gallery is publishing an accompanying catalogue with contributions from prominent Danish and international art historians.

Source: The Copenhagen Post (text), Los Angeles Times (photo)