The Sky makes room for the skyscraper

Bob Dylan is also a painter. I visited the current exhibition at Maxxi in Rome. On display there are drawings and paintings on canvas, metal sculptures and graphics , but the paintings impressed me the most. A contamination of styles and references that draw transversally on multimedia sources of mass culture but also on the "noble" art world of the last two centuries. Colors vary from urban grays of industrialized suburbs to the fiery reds of drivable landscapes across deep America. Surprisingly, Mediterranean tones appear, combined with themes that recall the southern France of Impressionism. Some everyday life situations made me think of Rockwell or Hopper, but the plunge into materiality of brush strokes, together with the human subjects portrayed , wipes out idealization and sublimation and projects the paintings into the here and now. Even when Dylan chooses architectures, he paints them soft and vital. The sky makes room for the skyscraper. Understanding and compassion make their way into the heart of the viewer.

Bob Dylan's artwork currently displayed at MAXXI Museum in Rome. Untill june 4th 2023