Bob Dylan
Has drawn and painted seriously since the 1960s, and exhibits it as work rather than memorabilia.
Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941 and has drawn throughout his life; the self-portrait on the cover of Self Portrait in 1970 and the drawings in Writings and Drawings predate any exhibition by decades. The Drawn Blank Series began as sketches made on tour between 1989 and 1992, published as a book and then, from 2007, reworked in colour for exhibition in Germany. Later bodies of work include The Brazil Series, The Asia Series, Mondo Scripto — handwritten lyrics with accompanying drawings — and large welded iron gates made from salvaged farm machinery. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
Almost everything that trades is editioned, and the editions are the point of confusion: the Drawn Blank images exist in multiple colourways, each its own numbered edition, printed as giclee on paper or canvas at several sizes, so image, colourway, medium, size and edition all need establishing before a valuation means anything. Signature is normally in pencil or on the reverse of canvas works, with a certificate from the publisher. Unique paintings and the ironwork are far scarcer. The music-memorabilia market and the art market value this work differently.
If you own a work by Bob Dylan
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.