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Bob Dylan|The Retrospectrum Collection

Three releases of 2022 make up Bob Dylan's 'The Retrospectrum Collection': two portfolios of six prints and a silkscreen triptych. The collection takes its name from 'Retrospectrum', the retrospective of his art that toured museums in China and the United States. Washington Green published the prints, and the portfolio images were also sold individually.

All The Retrospectrum Collection Works By Bob Dylan (12)

Significance & Analysis

Each release in the collection drew on works shown in 'Retrospectrum', so the prints serve as a record in print of the exhibition.

The exhibition

'Retrospectrum' opened at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai on 28 September 2019, with more than 250 works spanning five decades and seven series, many lent by private collectors. It was billed at the time as the most comprehensive survey of his art. The Shanghai showing drew more than 100,000 visitors in its first three months. The tour went on to Beijing and Shenzhen, then to the Frost Art Museum in Miami from 30 November 2021 to 17 April 2022. In Miami it included paintings from 'The Asia Series', 'Train Tracks' and 'The Drawn Blank Series', along with the new 'Deep Focus' film paintings.

The releases

The first portfolio of six came out in January 2022, while the Miami show was still open. In May came 'Sunset in Monument Valley, from The Retrospectrum Collection (Triptych)', the first triptych among Dylan's editions. Its original painting had been a focal point of the exhibition and hung in Miami. The print renders it as a silkscreen in three panels, float-mounted and framed. A second portfolio of six followed on 18 August 2022, made up of images that had all formed part of the exhibition's displays. Single prints from the portfolios include 'Cigar Store', 'Yellow Taxi (Framed)', 'Industrial Train (2022)' and 'Dining Car Outside Of Chicago (2022)'.

Are The Retrospectrum Collection Prints Hand-Signed?

No. Both portfolios, the single prints and the triptych carry signatures applied with an autopen, a machine that reproduces a signature, although they were first sold as hand-signed. This came to light in November 2022, when Dylan said that vertigo, which began in 2019, and the pandemic had made signing sessions impossible. Buyers who had bought directly from the gallery were offered a full refund and could keep the print, exchanging its certificate for one stating that it was autopen-signed.

What Paper and Size Are The Retrospectrum Collection Prints?

The first portfolio is a set of six giclées on 350gsm Magnani wove paper in an edition of 295, with artist's and printer's proofs alongside, and unframed sets came in a red presentation case. Complete sets offered at auction have been catalogued with sheets of 58 x 76 cm. The triptych is a separate edition of 195, a screenprint on hand-torn 320gsm Coventry Rag cotton paper that measures 111.5 x 147.5 cm overall, framed.