[ Bob Dylan at his iron works studio, September 2013 © John Shearer ]
The Halcyon Gallery has dedicated both its expansive gallery spaces to a major exhibition of Bob Dylan’s new works. His pieces include hilarious, huge canvases, his ‘Revisionist Art’ which borrow aesthetics, headlines and satirical phrasing from magazine publications to poke fun at the music, art and fashion industries amongst others. Alongside these images are Dylan’s infamous iron sculptures. These works offer an insight into the artist’s past, his ongoing relationship with iron, interest in the ‘found’ and pattern-making. A sceptical viewer would most likely find these art objects immature, mediocre and unworthy of such a large scale exhibition, but on closer inspection perhaps the iron-works are more than unrefined decoration. There is no randomness in the positioning of the metal parts; they instead represent sense, order, purpose and pride. The shapes and movement created within the iron are reminiscent of surrealist paintings, such as Joan Miro, Max Ernst or even the oddities of Rene Magritte.
[ Gates 4 & 6, Bob Dylan, 2013 ]
But these blatant connections are possibly a problem. Any viewer with an art historical knowledge can almost see the influences and internal processes of Dylan unfolding before them in his works. His artistic references are so glaringly obvious that it brings into question his achievements here. Has Dylan done anything new here? Anything at all transgressive? Or even relevant? Does his artwork deserve such a massive exhibition within the walls of a huge gallery space in central London? Or has Dylan used his musical career, success and fame as a platform to sell his artistic works? Each of the pieces here are for sale after all.
The entire mezzanine floor is dedicated to Dylan’s ‘Side Track’ paintings, which are visually stunning, yes, with impressionistic brushwork, dazzling colour, impressive perspective and emotional content, but are again completely reliant on others for inspiration. They offer nothing new. Nothing exciting. Nothing particularly noteworthy. Again the viewer can see his direct stimulus. The influence of Paul Cezanne, the Impressionists and the un-nerving, sloping perspective of Van Gogh. The works in this room unfold like a GCSE art project, where influences are developed in ‘experimentation’ in order to come up with a ‘final piece’. His works are nice. Beautiful even? But whether they warrant such an expansive, solo exhibition is questionable.
Check it out.
–words by Kimberley Brown
Bob Dylan ‘Mood Swings’ – Halcyon Gallery 14th November 2013 – 25th January 2014 www.halcyongallery.com
