Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum
MAXXI, Rome
16 December 2022 – 30 April 2023
Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum, a comprehensive collection of visual works by one of the world’s most important cultural figures, opens at Rome’s National Museum of 21st Century Art—MAXXI.
Curated by Shai Baitel, the Rome exhibition follows globally-renowned showings at MAM Shanghai, China and the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, Florida in the United States. Notably, Rome is the very first European city to host this exhibition, which is being completely reimagined to interact with Zaha Hadid’s dynamic and futuristic spaces at MAXXI.
More than 100 works are on display in the exhibition, including paintings, watercolors, ink and graphite drawings, metal sculptures, video material, and archival documents that trace and explore more than 60 years of Bob Dylan’s artistic output.
Bob Dylan says: “It’s gratifying to learn that my visual works are going to be exhibited at MAXXI in Rome, a truly great museum in one of the world’s most beautiful and inspirational cities. This exhibition is meant to provide perspectives that examine the human condition and explore the mysteries of life that continue to leave us perplexed. It’s very different from my music, of course, but every bit as purposeful in its intent”.
Comments Giovanna Melandri, President of Fondazione MAXXI: "Bob Dylan is an absolute legend and one of the most important and influential cultural icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is a musician, a composer, a poet, a Nobel laureate in literature. With this exhibition, we will have the privilege of discovering a previously unseen aspect of his inexhaustible talent: his paintings, which, like his songs, are powerful, sincere and immediate, elicit a flavor of on-the-road travels and charm. Dylan is a piece of our history and a part of us. That is why I am particularly pleased with this exhibition at MAXXI, which tells his whole story and ours".“This career-spanning exhibition showcases Bob Dylan’s unique approach to visual art and command of painting, drawing, and sculpting. It provides a special opportunity to view Dylan’s creative journey across time and locations, including the steps at Rome’s Piazza di Spagna as captured in the featured work “When I paint my Masterpiece”, adds the curator Shai Baitel.
Fondazione MAXXI | Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome
Via Guido Reni, 4A - 00196 Roma
