Antiques: The demand for Bob Dylan’s art is soaring

For within months, Steve's unwavering predictions of international fame for the Jewish shopkeeper's son born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24, 1941 had been proved right. Dylan's innovative style, combining engaging narratives with verbal dexterity, witty social commentary and neat handling of metaphor and rhyme, had set him on the path to becoming one of the most iconic musicians and songwriters of the modern era. In 1965 alone, he had five UK chart hits, led by the classic The Times They Are a-Changin' and Like a Rolling Stone. And this, remember, in a year when the best-selling record in the UK was Tears by Ken Dodd!

Soon we were all hooked on the gravelly-voiced Dylan (Donovan was regarded as the poor man's British answer) and I did my late night A-level revision to the soundtrack of his chart-topping album John Wesley Harding, with its parables and fables.

Enough nostalgia. Not only has Dylan sold more than 125 million records, with some of his songs becoming anthems for civil rights and anti-war movements, he is also a published poet and best-selling author, Nobel Prizewinner in Literature, filmmaker and actor, auto-biographer, radio presenter...and artist.

It is this last accomplishment that I feature this week. Since his first gallery exhibition, The Drawn Blank series, went on sale in 2008, the art of Bob Dylan has been a talking point in the art world. In 2019, his first comprehensive solo museum exhibition, Retrospectum, opened in the Modern Art Museum, Shanghai, attracting more than 100,000 visitors in the first three months. His paintings and sketches, mainly in acrylic and watercolour, have been praised by the critics, with his Abstract Nude (1960) fetching £85,000 and Side Tracks: 1976, Oklahoma City £32,000, both in 2022. Prices are boosted, naturally, by his reputation as one of the most influential cultural icons of our age, and the fact that he signs his work.

Even limited edition prints of his work are fetching good money nowadays, with a batch of five realising four-figure sums at Tennants. All reflect typically American scenes, with a truck thundering down the highway, entitled Omaha Rain, fetching £1,860; one of a train barrelling down the track under glorious red and yellow skies, Train at Sunset, £2,110; and a street lit with garish neon, Terminal Bar, all from 2023, £1,985. Another print, Pink Motel, made £1,610 and a fifth, Brooklyn Bridge, £1,860.

Dylan has sketched since the early 1960s, although his work has only been exhibited and available to buy since 2008. He is also a sculptor, unveiling his largest piece to date, an ironwork installation entitled Rail Car at Chateau La Coste in Provence, France, in 2022 for display alongside works by leading contemporary sculptors.

The same Modern and Contemporary Art Sale at Tennants, saw the emergence of a collection of etchings by one of Britain's most respected printmakers and etchers, Leeds-born Norman Ackroyd (1938-2024), whose love of the landscape was entrenched through a childhood exploring the Yorkshire Dales, cycling and fishing and trying to sketchy light sparkling on water. A batch of 11 from around Britain and Ireland fetched from £275-£1,610 each.

Back to Dylan for a moment. If you haven't seen it already, I can recommend the biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, which explores the star's relationship with the dying Woodie Guthrie (1912-1967), one of the most significant figures in American folk music, as well as his loves, including early girlfriend Suze Rotolo (inspiration for the 1973 hit Knockin' on Heaven's Door), singer-songwriter Joan Baez and first wife Sara Lownds. It's a great performance by Chalamet, who sang 40 Dylan songs during filming while also playing guitar and harmonica.