The Revisionist Collection

Just when we thought we had caught up with Bob Dylan, he has gone and surprised us again. Most famously known as an influential and controversial musician for the last five decades, Dylan certainly never gets stuck in a rut. We first saw his ability to keep his audience on their toes when he ditched the protest songs and swapped his famous acoustic guitar for an electric one. This move bewildered a lot of his fans, but Dylan did not bat an eyelid. He had his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead and never showed any sign of looking back.

Dylan has had a long and successful career in the music industry, writing over five hundred songs in his time, including 'Like a Rolling Stone', 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' and 'Blowing in the Wind'. Instead of stepping quietly out of the spotlight, he carries on to shock us all.

Firstly, it was a surprise that Bob Dylan was an artist as well as a musician. He evidenced his talents and captivated the world with a collection called 'Drawn Blank Series'. This was a great success for the artist, therefore meaning that it was not the time to switch off his creative brain. Instead we are graced with a new collection; perhaps more controversial than his previous portfolios, but nevertheless exciting.

Revisionist Art

The new portfolio released this year, could not be any more far removed from the 'Drawn Blank Series'. In fact, one would think that it was a complete different artist altogether!
The new collection is a limited edition of hand signed silkscreens which are the covers of popular magazines taken from the last half a century. The concept behind this is intriguing. They are magazine covers which have escaped history's notice. They are from a world only slightly removed from our own, and are indicative of a place more honest about its corruption. According to the works of Bob Dylan, our history is not quite what we think it is.

Dylan's artwork shows his outstanding awareness of the everyday, illustrating the same drive for renewal which epitomised his legendary music career. In this portfolio of art he has transformed popular designs, reconsidering the syntax, graphics and chromatic content and then enlarging them onto silkscreened images.

No doubt that this collection will be as popular as his last, and there is no chance of his audience becoming bored. It is sensed that this will probably not be the last we hear from Bob Dylan, and perhaps there are more shocking things to come.

By Robert Harry Smith