The Lone Ranger.
Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!
I'm still moved by the emotion I felt when visiting the retrospective exhibition of the
multifaceted artist Bob Dylan -the largest display of his pictorial work ever shown in
the United States-- at the Frost Museum in Miami. (November 3rd, 2021 - April 27,
2022)
"Beauty,-Henry Moore said-, is not the goal of my sculpture... For me a work must
first have a vitality of its own... a work can have in it a pent-up energy, an intense life of
its own, independent of the object it may represent." (Herbert Read: Icon and Idea, 1965)
"Vitality as an aesthetie factor has reappeared in all its irrepressible power in modern
art 33
Vitality and emotion are conveyed by Dylan's work. It is the result of 48 years
with art not as a hobby but as a life companion and witness of his experiences.
The first schematic drawings already show a special sensibility. The paintings from his
trip to Europe emerge as a brief hail to the works of Degas, Matisse and the
Expressionists. The drawing, the collage, the video, the assemblage, were called upon to
respond to his expressive needs. In the end, with classical techniques and without
technological boasts, Dylan takes up everyday themes, scenes of daily life, he revalues
them and endows them with that vital impulse of which Henry Moore speaks, he takes
them beyond their anecdotal context. We identify ourselves with them. Like someone
who comes home after a long journey. A solo tour. He is on his own brandishing ideas
that should leave a deep mark on the panorama of contemporary art.
Dylan is profoundly American and, together with Hooper's intelectualism and
O' Keeffe's poetry and music, he is part of a trilogy that represents the most genuine spirit
of North America.
Dylan's work comes to remind us of and to highlight the importance of art in these times
of chaos and disorientation; to be honest and authentic in expressing emotions whatever
the techniques or themes. Sometimes a pencil and a paper are enough.
I believe that the key to the future lies in the remnants of the past. You must master the
languages of your own time before you can enjoy any identity in the present time. Y our
past begins the day you are born, and to ignore it is to deceive yourself about who you
really are. Bob Dylan.
Solita Ponte - Bendayan.
