paper and accompanied with a corresponding drawing in graphite, also on paper. As Tom Piazza, a celebrated novelist and writer on American music, wrote for the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, ‘Dylan’s restlessly creative mind is never wholly satisfied, and those familiar with these songs will find surprise at many a new turn of phrase. The unexpected couplings of these works and images offer a surprisingly intimatedoor into each song, adding dimension, delight and insight into the artist’s relation to his own work’. In 2019 a landmark retrospective exhibition, Retrospectrum , featuring Dylan’s artistic output to date opened at MAM Shanghai, before beginning a tour that will cover Asia, Europe and the USA. The exhibition, which later opened in Beijing at Today’s Art Museum in July 2020 and Jupiter Art Museum, Shenzhen in December 2020, re-examines The Drawn Blank Series , The New Orleans Series, Mood Swings, The Beaten Path , and works from Mondo Scripto . 2020 In June, Dylan released his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. An international sensation, the album hit the Top Ten in 15 countries, including #1 chart entries in the Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and The United Kingdom. The Guardian called the album a “testament to his eternal greatness,” while the LA Times dubbed it a “savage pulp noir masterpiece.” In November 2021 , Retrospectrum opened at the Frost Art Museum in Miami to widespread critical acclaim. Spanning two floors and set across six vast rooms, Retrospectrum features over 180 acrylics, watercolours, drawings and ironwork sculptures, making it the most comprehensive exhibition of Bob Dylan’s artwork ever seen in America.
Schuster published the massive 960 page edition of Dylan’s LYRICS: SINCE 1962, edited by literary giant Christopher Ricks. The book was an instant success, selling out of its initial run in preorder. Later that year, Columbia Records released the eleventh chapter of The Bootleg Series, the highly anticipated, BASEMENT TAPES COMPLETE. 2015 On February 3, Dylan released his thirty-sixth studio album, SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT, a collection of American standard ballads, many popularized by Frank Sinatra. The album was a critical and popular success around the world entering the charts in the top ten in over nineteen countries. As Andy Gill, in the Independent wrote, the recordings “have a lingering, languid charm, which… help to liberate the material from the rusting manacles of big-band and cabaret mannerisms.” A few days later, Bob Dylan was honoured as the 25th MusiCares Person of the Year at a fundraiser in Los Angeles. The event was the most successful fundraiser in MusiCares history. 2016 From January until March, Face Value, a selection of twelve large portraits, was exhibited at Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio, USA. In April, Bob Dylan: The New Orleans Series opened at New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Face Value later made its debut in Germany for the first time in May, at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, in Chemnitz, Germany. In October 2016, an official announcement by Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, revealed that Dylan was to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’. The following month, Dylan’s major exhibition ‘The Beaten Path’ opened at Halcyon Gallery. In these new drawings, watercolours and acrylic works on canvas the artist depicts many facets of the American heartlands. 2018 ‘Mondo Scripto’ opened at Halcyon Gallery in October 2018. The exhibition presented a selection of Bob Dylan’s most iconic songs, handwritten in pen on
Photograph: Randee St Nicholas
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