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The Beaten Path 2017

'The Beaten Path 2017' is Bob Dylan's second set of 15 hand-signed giclées, published by Washington Green in editions of 295. Castle Fine Art launched it on 13 October 2017, with subjects running from city bridges to small-town America: a Tennessee diner, a Long Beach hamburger stand, a lighthouse in Maine, a New England depot and an abandoned motel in Eureka.

All The Beaten Path 2017 Works By Bob Dylan (25)

Significance & Analysis

This is where the series became a sequence. The first giclées had appeared less than a year earlier, in November 2016, and new chapters under the same title have followed ever since.

Dylan described the approach behind the series in plain terms: "My idea was to keep things simple, only deal with what is externally visible. If the viewer visited where the picture actually existed, he or she would see the same thing. It is what unites us all." Many of the 2017 titles simply name the place: 'Flat Top Mt. Diner, Tennessee', 'Hamburger Stand, Long Beach', 'Kingman, Arizona', 'H Street, Washington, DC' and 'Abandoned Motel, Eureka'. 'Lighthouse in Maine' and 'New England Depot' take the series to New England, a region none of the 2016 titles had named.

How the release was built

The release kept the shape of 2016: ten standard prints, four medium and a single large print. The repetition went beyond format, because the large print was again 'Endless Highway', an image already editioned as a large giclée in 2016 and as a silkscreen that April.

Before and after

The release came six months after 'The Beaten Path: The Silkscreen Collection', which had turned six paintings from the 2016 exhibition into hand-printed silkscreens. In May 2018 Dylan's prints looked back instead, revisiting earlier images in 'The Drawn Blank Series 2018 (10th Anniversary)'. 'The Beaten Path 2019' then gathered twelve key images, including new prints titled 'New England Depot' and 'Under the Bridge'.

How Are the Formats and Sets of The Beaten Path 2017 Arranged?

The ten standard prints are 'Abandoned Motel, Eureka', 'Flat Top Mt. Diner, Tennessee', 'H Street, Washington, DC', 'Hamburger Stand, Long Beach', 'Kentucky Pathway', 'Kingman, Arizona', 'Lighthouse in Maine', 'New England Depot', 'Oil Rigger's Shack' and 'Staring at the Moon'. The four medium prints are 'Clam Bar, Surf Avenue', 'Manhattan Bridge, Downtown New York', 'Motel in New Mexico' and 'Under the Bridge'. A boxed set in presentation packaging holds all 15 and is an edition of 295; the standard prints were also boxed as a set of ten, and the medium prints gathered in a portfolio of four.

What Are the Dimensions and Edition Details of the 2017 Prints?

Every print is an edition of 295, with artist's and printer's proofs beyond the numbered copies, and a framed print is numbered from the same edition as an unframed one. 'Kentucky Pathway' measures 60.96 x 41.91 cm unframed and 'Staring at the Moon' 89.99 x 70.99 cm framed, close to the 88.9 x 71.1 cm framed size of the 2016 standard prints. Sizes for the medium prints and the large 'Endless Highway' have not been published.

How Do I Tell a 2017 Print From Other Versions of the Same Title?

By year first, then process. The medium 'Manhattan Bridge, Downtown New York' and the large 'Endless Highway' of 2017 share their format and edition of 295 with the 2016 giclées of the same titles, so only the date separates them. Both images also exist as 2017 silkscreens in editions of 195. 'New England Depot', 'Under the Bridge' and 'Manhattan Bridge, Downtown New York' appear again as titles in 2019, so match the year on the listing and certificate as well as the title.