UPDATE: For the post I wrote following my visit to the exhibition (and the eruption of the plagiarism controversy) click here: The Asia Series by Bob Dylan at the Gagosian Gallery.
The following was written soon after the exhibition was first announced:
It’s a little surprising, when you think about it, that this will be Bob Dylan’s first exhibition in New York since he broke out as a mover and shaker in the visual arts with his “Drawn Blank Series” exhibition in Germany’s Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz in 2007. But all things come to those who wait.
The Bob Dylan “Asia Series,” consisting of 18 drawings and paintings—apparently with a focus on subjects he found during his Asian tours of 2009 and 2010—will be on show at New York City’s Gagosian Gallery from September 20th through October 22nd, 2011. There will be a catalog including an “interview with John Elderfield and Bob Dylan.” (John Elderfield is a leading art historian and curator who has been associated with at least one previous Bob Dylan exhibition.)
For those who are or might be in the vicinity, note that the Gagosian Gallery has multiple branches in New York. The one that will have the Bob Dylan exhibition is at 980 Madison Avenue, near 77th Street.
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As someone who is in the vicinity myself, I’m very glad of this opportunity to see some of his work up close and for real. I couldn’t possibly afford to buy all the catalogs and books of his art that come out; the man is a producer of creative work on an industrial scale, and my accountant insists that I now limit myself to purchasing only his musical and literary works. In any case such expenditure would also be out of proportion with my interest in painting. But I think that seeing art in real life, with all its physicality and texture and true color, is a good thing to do when the chance comes along.