Friday, June 13, 2008

Dylan's Paintings: In Search of the Uncool

A friend in the art business is very sad about the exhibition of Bob Dylan paintings. 'I mean they're all right, but you know... I wish he hadn't.' He feels Dylan has let himself down, even made a fool of himself; above all, he has been uncool. He worships Dylan, of course, both the man and the singer-songwriter. He sees him, as many do, as lying beyond criticism - like Shakespeare, Dylan is not just better than others, he is not even the best, he is the thing itself. I sympathise, I've been there myself, but I am untroubled by the paintings for the simple reason that Dylan has always combined the sublime with the ridiculous. If, for example, you think the paintings are not quite up to scratch, try listening to Empire Burlesque. And if you think that all aspects of his life should reflect his inner cool, what about the fact that he plays golf, a game that exemplifies all that is uncool? (It may not be true that he plays, I vaguely heard it some years ago and briefly lost the will to live. Anyway, it makes the point.) Dylan is a great artist, but he is seldom perfect and that, in fact, is the point of the man. He doesn't stand back and, after much careful thought, emit flawless jewels of art; he rushes in and flings out whatever seems right to him at that moment. It works - much of his greatest work is made greater by its roughness. Every so often - The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, I Want You, Sign on the Window - he is perfect, but perfection is not necessary. He would still be great without those songs. In his art as in his life, he spends a lot of time dabbling in the uncool. So do I, so do you. To misquote Beckett, the artist is he who dares to be uncool as no others dare to be uncool.

11 comments:

  1. Didn't they drive a stake into his heart when he turned electric? I don't know, he was never cool to me once I heard him play that harmonica ('play' being used advisedly, maybe blow and suck would be more accurate). Pop stars don't make good heroes. Anyway, I can't see any of his pictures....

    Have you been to RA Summer Exhibition yet? the egg won! it looked pretty cool (on the tv).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dylan stubbornly playing electric to a horde of booing folkies... there has never been a man cooler.

    But as Bryan says, cool is not a relevant concept when it comes to describing Dylan. Dylan just is as Dylan does. The paintings are nothing in terms of uncoolness to his role in the film 'Hearts of Fire', for example. (And I quite like the train tracks pictures.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I find cool used as a description of someone or something quite odd, some of the "coolest" people I have bumped into have been underneath, jibbering wrecks. Dylan welded his soul to his music, there again, so did Haydn. A friend, a lifelong Dylanite, saw Dylans concert at Sheffield last year, his response "heap of shit, past his sell by date"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think 'perfection' in art is commonly held up as a virtue, but for me it's quite the opposite. Though technically competent with the pencil, people who can produce exact likenesses often don't exhibit an ounce of artistry, whereas a scribble by Rembrandt can leave you breathless with excitement. The same is true with musicians. Programmes like ‘X Factor’ promotes the false notion that good singing involves powerful voices but give me Dylan, Tom Waits, or Jim Morrison who was never better than on 'LA Woman' when his voice was shot.

    The new Neil Diamond album is astonishing now he's been given that same Rick Ruben treatment as rejuvenated Johnny Cash’s career. And even Cash became sublime when his voice began to fail. His last album is heart wrenching.

    That said, I agree about Dylan’s paintings. I felt the same way about the exhibition of Leonard Cohen's paintings and drawings. I couldn't bring myself to visit it.

    There are very few writers who succeed as artists. Off the top of my head, I can think only of Vonnegut, Mervyn Peake, William Blake...

    ReplyDelete
  5. but does he want to succeed as an artist - is that his intention here or is he just showing his fans this funny little hobby? that would tip the balance between cool and fool.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bryan gets close with 'he is the thing itself', and many people have tried to capture the essence of this enigmatic man in words.
    I only became aware of him around the Manchester/Judas period, when I saw the band in Birmingham, and what struck me then was his unconcern (about how he was received when plugged into the grid) and his self-belief, both qualities that have endured through the years. For at least the last 30 years he has constantly tinkered with his work, more often than not disfiguring (to these ears) sublime three or four minute masterpieces but, from time to time, actually improving them - and I think the essence of Dylan lies here. A restlessness, and a belief that change is not a crime, and having a few dollars in the bank enables him to, broadly speaking, do what he likes.
    When Time Out of Mind arrived I was just staggered, but recently he pared it back yet again, and the result was Modern Times. Has he got more in his locker? I wouldn't bet against it
    Mahlerman

    ReplyDelete
  7. Uncool, no big deal. What killed me was when I saw Dylan skittering about on a Victoria's Secret advertisement! Not just uncool, but commercial and crass.

    Ian, I'm with you. I hate the early Dylan with all that damn harmonica. I think it's cause he didn't have a band yet, so he had to play all the instruments he could manage by himself. But what a storyteller. Love "Hurricane" and some of those other long, incredible ballads. What Njal was to Iceland, Dylan is to America.

    ReplyDelete
  8. maybe he should have tested that beyond reproach cool to destruction, susan, and carried a bass drum on his back and cymbals between his knees. as a superficial image I think it would've suited him!

    ReplyDelete
  9. i'm uncool but in an uncool way.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Important visual artist he ain't, but then he knows this, he was tempted into doing this I believe. Important in music/poetry hybrid fields....can't get much higher. Genius, absolutely.

    ReplyDelete