From Bob Dylan's The Drawn Blank Series ... above, Cassandra, and below, Dad's Restaurant.

Bob Dylan’s art comes to Sydney

While Bob Dylan's birthdate of 24 May 1941 rules him out as a baby boomer, there's absolutely no doubt that, musically, socially and spiritually, he has been one of the great influences on the baby boomer generation.

Now, a collection of artworks by the music legend are to be exhibited for the first time in Australia.

One of Sydney’s newest galleries, 28 Spring Street, in Bondi Junction, will present The Drawn Blank Series to the public from 31 October to 19 November.

The exhibition showcases 29 works that had their genesis as drawings made by Dylan during his world tour of 1989-1992 and later published in a book entitled Drawn Blank.

The works — portraits, interiors, landscapes, still lifes, nudes and street scenes — capture Dylan’s chance encounters and observations, and were done “to relax and refocus a restless mind”.

When contacted by a German museum curator who had come across the book and proposed to exhibit the originals, Dylan was moved to realise his original vision for the drawings.

He created paintings from them using watercolour and gouache and these form the collection entitled The Drawn Blank Series, which was first exhibited in the Kunstsammmlungen Museum in Chemnitz, Germany, in 2007 and London’s Halcyon Gallery earlier this year.

Unlike the delicacy of his drawings, Dylan’s paintings are expressive and vibrant, with several versions of some of the same images using different colours and tones which result in a dynamic variety of impressions and emotions.

The resulting collection, published by the Washington Green Fine Art Company, has a limited number of no more than 295 giclée prints worldwide. All are personally signed by the artist.

28 Spring St is the initiative of gallery owner and artist Andrew Hmelnitsky. It is open Monday-Saturday from 11am to 6pm. Inquiries 02 9389 4717.