For more than sixty years Dylan has adhered to an artistic statement in his Nobel speech. He says: “We see only the surface of things. We can interpret what lies below any way we see fit.” A variety of Dylan’s paintings precisely capture his devotion to what lies beneath the surface of a winding career and longevity as an artist.

As of 2023, Bob Dylan is alive and well and regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. However, did you know he is a painter too? Below we examine a few of his paintings.

Man on a Bridge

Dylan’s “Man on a Bridge” series exhibits a young man clad in a heavy coat, and the palette ranges from drab to colorful. The lyrics Dylan produced in the sixties were famous for capturing the spirit of the times and earned him the Nobel Prize. The “Man on a Bridge” paintings is centered around a seemingly twentieth-century backdrop—perhaps in San Francisco or New York where the counterculture flourished. Like his lyrics, Dylan focalizes on the sights and textures of twentieth-century life in the “Man on a Bridge” series. The four distinction paintings may illustrate the moods of differing moments during the 1960’s. For example, the grey portrait has a post-Kennedy assassination vibe with an overcast horizon pouring down on the young man. Like the “Man on a Bridge,” Dylan’s “Train Tracks” series displays a world filled with panoramic changes.

Train Track

The “Train Track” paintings could function as a variety of visual motifs. Dylan was born in 1940, when World War Two was raging. The image of a train track could connect to the haunted history of the war, or could represent optimism and change. There are many different sets of the train tracks in this collection—and like “Man on a Bridge,” each has its own atmosphere. The blue “Train Tracks” piece juxtaposes a blue horizon with a sleepy town in the background. Dylan experienced many of the major turning points of twentieth century—such as the end of World War Two and Civil Rights Movement. Thus, the slightly somber blue “Train Tracks” could allude to Dylan’s piece of mind yet melancholy reflection of the changes he witnessed in the last century. This image of a lonesome train tracks crops up quite often in Dylan’s portfolio, and its hard to imagine that it isn’t a visual motif.

Endless Highway

Dylan’s later songs employ contrast between personal sentiment and aesthetics. One of the more dazzling art pieces Dylan has composed is “Endless Highway.” Similar to the often surreal nature of his lyrics, Dylan infuses an ordinary view of a highway with dreamlike characteristics. Since the early 1960s, Dylan has traveled throughout the United States to play music and gather perspective about the culture. “Endless Highway” appears to reflect Dylan’s journeys on the road. The highway winds past scenery teeming with evening colors, fusing personal sentiments of his journeys with aesthetics. Like the symbolism of train tracks, the subject matter of a highway has a quality of memory and longing. Dylan was never an artist who stayed idle too long, and the “Endless Highway” can be a homage to the hard miles he has traveled throughout the years.

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