DEEP FOCUS
Bob Dylan’s new collection of paintings, Deep Focus (2020–21), draws on the documentary candour of photography and film, as well as their ability to manipulate reality through cropping and framing. The title of the series refers to a cinematic technique that communicates narrative through the foreground, middle, and background, rather than focussing on one visual plane over another.
Dylan’s cinematic references result in evocative, often mysterious, compositions suspended between life and theater, while conjuring a distinctly tangible pictorial experience. Although these new works more prominently depict figures and portraits, much of the iconography that featured in Dylan’s earlier series 'The Beaten Path' is still recognisable — diners, roadsides, city streets, and motels.
