LIT: A Portrait of Bob Dylan by Lesley Schiff, is a comprehensive expression of Schiff’s command of digital media as grounded in contemporary painting. Granted access to Dylan’s archives, Schiff deploys found images, instruments, memorabilia and lyrics (rendered in a custom typeface, hand cut by MacArthur Fellow, Matthew Carter). Schiff weaves together an evocation of four of Mr. Dylan’s creative temperaments: COOL, HEAT, TIME and SIMMERING—each captured across a multi-image portfolio of prints on paper. Schiff took an additional year to break with the uniformity of the portfolios and develop larger scale pieces. In spite of her subject’s fame and commitment to personal privacy, Schiff manages to propose a novel and penetrating understanding of Dylan. While the Portrait features lyrics from many popular songs, Schiff’s use of less familiar tracks frustrate preconception; allowing the naiveté to consider Bob afresh.
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I worked at The Metropolitan Museum in 1981, when they acquired Lesley’s SEASONS portfolio. We knew we had to have it, even though we didn’t have a category for it
David Kiehl
Curator of Prints and Special CollectionsThe Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, 2004
The scale of the work is formidable and you certainly have achieved something very special...
Weston Naef
The Getty Museum
