Expecting Rain

that's the same as his records or anything since 1965 or thereabouts...what's yer point

It's different. You're comparing it to borrowing a few lines when you should be comparing it to a word for word cover.

no it's more like his adaptations of Rolling and Tumblin or something...same skeleton, different skin

No, you just don't know the original songs. It really approaches note for note.

Karl Erik asks that people tone down their rage a bit and refrain from swearing. I agree. It doesn't further this potentially fruitful and inspiring debate.

This story makes me very sad, disappointed and doubtful about his previous work ...and it makes me think about this quote from "I'm not there"

Quote:

There he lay...poet,prophet,outlaw,fake.

Why he lied?I can't understand..!!

With a 20-page thread, many first-time (and long-time) visitors are getting lost. I also had a record number of PMs asking various questions. Here's a timeline I created with links that should be useful as a basic guide to the story to date. Feel free to offer corrections. Johanna, feel free to edit as you see fit with corrections/additions or if any of the links are broken.

____________


The Gagosian Gallery announces Dylan’s “The Asia Series" will open at their Madison Avenue gallery on 20 September and run until 22 October.

Several images are posted on the gallery site, including a mysterious reproduction of a Life magazine cover ascribed to “Bob Dylan.” The cover seems an exact duplicate of the one published by Life on February 25th 1966 with the exception of several new lines of text, including “The Shadow,” The Mask,” and The “Bowl.”

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/bob-dylan/#/images/4/

The gallery issues a media release that noting that the works would offer “firsthand depictions of people, street scenes, architecture and landscape” with evocative titles like “Mae Ling,” “Cockfight,” “The Bridge” and “Hunan Province.” as well as “ more cryptic paintings often of personalities and situations, such as ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Opium,’ or ‘LeBelle Cascade,’ which looks like a riff on Manet’s ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe’ but which is, in fact, a scenographic tourist photo-opportunity in a Tokyo amusement arcade.”

9/7/11 “The Little Hokum Rag” publishes a blog post with images indicating that Dylan’s “Opium” painting was copied from a 1915 photo by Leon Busy.

http://amycrehore.blogspot.com/2011/09/ ... nting.html

A comment following the original post notes that the “Asia Series” also uses a photograph based on Bruce Gilden's Japan Asakusa, (1998) image:

http://blog.magnumphotos.com/images/NYC7349.jpg

9/20 After some research, I discover that the “Cock Fight” painting is based on another Magnum image by Jacob Aue Sobol, titled “THAILAND. Bangkok. 2008”

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3= ... &CT=Search

9/21 – A Gagosian representative responds to an inquiry about the Life image from “AndoDoug” that, “It is in fact a Bob Dylan painting and part of the exhibition.”

9/23 – Several more photos are discovered to be the basis of “Asia Series” paintings:

http://www.life.com/image/tlp720230 (Note the image comes from Life magazine)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2358252690/

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3= ... &CT=Search

An “Okinawa Soba” posts on the Expecting Rain board after discovering it as the source of the traffic coming to his Flickr gallery. He notes that several of his vintage photos – all in the public domain – appear to have been used as the reference source for “Asia Series” paintings”

(1) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2358252690/

(2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3450980225/

(3) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3475403988/

(4) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2401941303/

(5) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3492941386/

(6) http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3000702662/

9/24 – An Expecting Rain board member discovers that one of the paintings from Dylan’s earlier “Brazil Series” appears based on a photo…

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/fi ... -2-1-l.jpg

9/26 – With the exhibit live and the catalog released, the Life painting is notable by its absence, appearing in neither. The story escapes the Expecting Rain bubble when an article is published in the online New York Times. The story quickly goes viral and is picked up by media and bloggers worldwide.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ ... -gagosian/

The Gagosian Gallery issues a a statement: “While the composition of some of Bob Dylan’s paintings is based on a variety of sources, including archival, historic images, the paintings’ vibrancy and freshness come from the colors and textures found in everyday scenes he observed during his travels.”

Dylan’s representatives have no comment.

9/27 – A Magnum representative replies to my inquiries with the statement that “Magnum and Bob have a long relationship,” citing the use of Magnum photos on several Dylan albums. He refuses to discuss specifics about the “Asia Series,” but responds to my speculation that the respective photographers whose work were used have been compensated as a, “fair inference.”

9/29 – bobdylan.com releases the John Elderfield interview with Dylan, originally published in the catalog.

http://www.bobdylan.com/elderfield

It's hard to make a comparison without the paintings accompanying the photos.

Dylan's "methods" have long included copying, stealing, and posing as something he is not. So his exhibition really is consistent with his other cons. The paintings themselves don't appear to have any particular value beyond documents of a celebrity amateur. He is to painting what Russell Crowe is to rock and roll. The work brings to mind an assessment of Andrew Wyeth--more than an illustrator, less than an artist. Except maybe Dylan is merely an illustrator.

His work is not remotely as impressive as this:

The short and sweet of it, as far as I'm concerned. No steam rolling used or needed. Posts like these are in short supply and refreshing like an open window on a Spring day.

yeah, his paintings aren't of much interest to non-fans, one would think. bob's fans are used to/can get past the allegations of 'theft' and so on.

@ Fred@Dreamtime

thanks for your historic compilation on this issue ... a scene from "I'm Not There" enters my mind: "Don't create anything" (because people will inevitably tear it apart) ...

have a lovely weekend everyone !!!

Good Lord I agreed with the second half of Albert's post, reality as we know it is coming to an end


That really is my problem with it.

I, a freshman 18 year old, can do work on par with that. That's not okay. It's a ridiculous ego-stroking. Or perhaps he's sitting back laughing his rear off at the chumps making a bug hulabulloo over his work. We'll never know.

It is a very common way that artists and painters see something they like to put down on canvas....a beautiful flower or yes a nice picture........everybody else can get away with it.........really........

Bob's always in trouble.......come here baby..let me steal some......I can ease the headache honey babe.... but then all the fun would go away? You can't have it both ways or maybe you can? I can not figure it out with my brain........

No kissing smiley?

Fred@Dreamtime, thank you so much for the Asia Series source investigation.

I've lost track and was wondering if anyone would mind listing which, as far as we know, of the Series' 18 paintings are Bob originals, i.e. not based on photos?

or maybe he just did them because he enjoys it, and doesn't worry too much what people think?

For those who, like me, have not seen the exhibition or catalogue, there are four paintings that have not appeared online and have thus not been traced back to photos. They are The Bull, The Bridge, Hunan Province and LeBelle Cascade. Of those that have appeared online, only Idol, Scribe and Kitchenette have not been sourced. That means 11 out of 18 paintings have definitely been created after photographs.

I like the accusations because I more or less see them as waterproof how stupid people are.........takling about narrowminded.......like lemmels just walking forward..........but no not really.....

There are wars all over the world and they just executed a man down in Georgia who most likely was innocent (Troy Davis) and these people have nothing better to do than to put Bob's paintings under fire......I can not help but laugh.......I think it is comic on a very high level.

Who cares where Bob got his inspiration from? Either you like them or you don't. Somebody may want to buy one for investment.

I think there are much more important things to do in life. Like Joan Baez for example. Get active in Amnesty International. Go demonstrate outside Wall street. Make your voice heard if you are young and able. Focus on the important stuff and forget the less important.

We the people need to work together as one to care about the enviroment, we need clean water for our children and grandchildren. We need to stop fracking.Imagine all the people's energy would go for that. Save humanity and ourselves. It makes me sad that so many intelligent people makes a blind eye to that fact.

Could the Life Magazine cover piece be a key to the entire series? It is a real odd ball in the whole lot (of what I’ve seen). Is the entire series a comment on authenticity? Is choosing the artist with the previous lawsuit to write the guide also part of this series’ meaning? I have a hard time believing that this whole thing wasn’t planned by Dylan. The joker, the masked, the anonymous, love and theft. . . Hasn’t there always been a theme of identity and authenticity surrounding Dylan and his work?

Thanks so much Johanna for straightening this out. Although, I thought I saw somewhere a photo that the Kitchenette (if that's the one w the two men w one putting on a tie) was based on? I'll look around and see if I can find it or if I'm making up.

Yes, that's the one. Some say it might be based on the movie "In The Mood For Love".

So out of the 18 works, how many of the "inspirations" have been discovered so far?

Oops- this is what I was thinking of. haha

O darn photos don't show - it's from page 4 of this thread 8th post from the bottom if you want to see them.

11

Wow- how can people remember a clip like that from a whole film??? Amazing!

Maybe it was from a promotional poster or something?