These paintings formed a collection entitled 'The Drawn Blank Series'. Unlike the delicacy of the drawings in 'Drawn Blank' the paintings are expressive and vibrant. Dylan paints several versions of the same image, using different colours and tones which result in a dynamic variety of impressions, feelings and emotions.

This choice and skill in applying different colour arrangements to the same original drawing enables Dylan to express his feelings and perceptions of an idea or view – continually evoking different feelings and reactions, and thereby creating evolving works of art. This technique is intrinsic to Dylan in all aspects of his creative life. As Tobias Rüther (Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper), who credited Dylan with successfully translating his songs into art, commented: "That which he's done for years on the stage – performing new versions of his old songs in order to give a fresh interpretation – he's now continuing on deckle-edged paper."

THE DRAWN BLANK SERIES GRAPHICS COLLECTION

Prior to the seventeenth century most artists had viewed printmaking (or Graphics as they are also known nowadays) as a preparatory technique, using the medium to create sketches for their final paintings.

Whilst travelling on tour between 1989 and 1992, Bob Dylan created a collection of drawings that were published in a book entitled 'Drawn Blank' in 1994. These expressive works capture Dylan's chance encounters and observations. The creation of these portraits, interiors, landscapes, still lifes, nudes and street scenes were done to “relax and refocus a restless mind.”

Ingrid Mössinger – the curator of the Kunstsammlungen Museum, in Chemnitz, Germany – came across 'Drawn Blank' during a visit to New York in 2006. Instantly excited about Dylan's work, she contacted the artist's team and was thrilled to learn that Bob Dylan would agree to have his art exhibited in public for the first time.

When Dylan had first drawn the works in this series he had intended to create paintings based upon them. Ingrid Mössinger's proposed exhibition encouraged him to now do this using watercolour and gouache. "I was fascinated to learn of Ingrid's interest in my work, and it gave me the impetus to realise the vision I had for these drawings many years ago," Bob Dylan commented.

THE DRAWN BLANK SERIES

The Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was one of the first artists to use printmaking as a form of art in its own right. Although initially a painter, he became devoted to the medium of etching; creating approximately three hundred etchings during his lifetime. His importance and renown within the art world in this context is of such significance that, when the medium was revived during the twentieth century, artists such as Picasso fervently aspired to be as skilled as him in this medium and, during the 1930s went on to create, amongst many fine art graphics, a series of etchings which featured imagery of Rembrandt.

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