He's an artist, he don't look back

Updated on 09 June 2008

Rock bard Bob Dylan shows there's more to his talents than just music with his first solo exhibition of artwork in London.

Sitting in a room surrounded by bright paintings by a man more famous for his lyrics than his paintbrush, President of the Halycon gallery Paul Green describes the moment, nine months ago, when Bob Dylan's work was laid out before him.

"It was a revelation," Green says. "It was important that the art was valid - and it really is".

The paintings in the Drawn Blank Series exhibition are made from sketches Dylan made on the road between 1989 and 1992. Each is made from a reproduction of the earlier drawing, and then experimented upon with gouache and watercolour - vivid staccato colour applied with what curator Kate Anderson describes as an "economy of brushstroke".

Sold as "the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Bob Dylan's art ever assembled", expectations will run high. But given a recent trend for musicians showcasing their painterly endeavours - think Ronnie Wood's tiger porn - can it deliver?

What is the most exciting part of this exhibition? Is it the fact the artist is Bob Dylan, or is it the art itself? Anderson believes it's more than the big name: "For me it's about the art work - the art says so much," she enthuses.

The sketches are snapshots of everyday life. They illustrate banal scenes - empty hotel rooms and views from windows - or they depict characters Dylan has met on his tours.

After decades of silence he's become relatively easy-going speaking about his work in a Scorcese documentary and his autobiography Chronicles. His artwork now provides another insight.

"The art speaks for itself - it's a medium he's speaking through," says Anderson. "This is just another way he speaks about his life."

But the paintings never show Dylan himself, and they never give anything away; like the painter Edward Hopper before him, there's something removed, something of the outsider looking in.

Indeed, Dylan is famously a man of many words when it comes to his songs, but very few when discussing his personal life. As Green says: "He always wanted to perform in public but never wanted to explain it."

Is this another performance? Perhaps, but then he's an artist, he doesn't have to look back.

The Drawn Blank Series exhibition opens on June 14 at The Halcyon Gallery, Bruton Street W1.