Prints from music legend Bob Dylan to go under the hammer in Shropshire
A private collection of signed prints by legendary American singer-songwriter and artist Bob Dylan will be going up for auction in Shropshire next month.
The collection, valued at around £50,000, has been consigned by a Shropshire collector to Halls Fine Art’s Modern and Contemporary Art and Design Auction at the Battlefield saleroom in Shrewsbury on Wednesday, July 9.
A potential star lot is ‘Side Tracks’, a hand-embellished giclee print with watercolour and gouache painted by Dylan on February 21, 1974, in Los Angeles.
The 131 cm by 100 cm print is valued at £20,000 to £25,000.
‘Train Tracks in Green’ is valued at £2,000 to £2,500 and ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘Cityscape’ are each valued at between £1,000 and £2,000.
Most of the other prints, which were painted by Dylan during his travels across the America and Europe, carry estimates of £800 to £1,200.
They were purchased by the collector from Washington Green Fine Art, Birmingham, and are all in excellent condition.
Abigail Molenaar, Halls Fine Art’s paintings and prints specialist, said: “I often get valuation requests for Bob Dylan prints, but it is rare to get the opportunity to bring such an extensive collection to auction.
“The market for Bob Dylan prints is strong and this collection has gone from gallery to the collector’s wall and now to auction, so they are in good condition.
“Bob Dylan is a global popular culture icon who, like David Bowie, transcends different genres and their work is always collectable for memorabilia.”
Dylan’s most popular prints are those from his ‘Side Tracks’ series, based on the ‘Train Tracks’ sketch which first appeared in his ‘Drawn Blank’ series.
‘Side Tracks’ is a running series of more than 300 giclée prints, each featuring the same ‘Train Tracks’ image, then hand-embellished by Dylan, making each one unique.
All the prints are individually named after a specific location and date, usually corresponding to a concert Dylan played at some point between 1961 and 2013.
Dylan became the first singer-songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 and, three years later, held his first comprehensive solo exhibition in the Modern Art Museum Shanghai.
The exhibition attracted more than 100,000 visitors in the first three months.
Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan’s life is captured in the 2024 biographical musical drama film ‘A Complete Unknown’.
Halls Fine Art will also be selling a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, signed by Dylan, in the auction with an estimate of £200 to £300.
Other works include an artist’s proof print of ‘Pride in Prejudice by Donald Trump’ with a stylised Penguin book cover.
The satirical work, valued at £800 to £1,200, is by The Connor Brothers, known for their contemporary art with a witty, often cynical, commentary.
‘On the Sands’, a lithograph of a work by Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976), is valued at £1,000 to £1,500 and a double-sided preparatory work for the mural at St Luke's Church, Leagrave, Luton by Norman Blamey (1914-2000) carries an estimate of £2,000 to £4,000.
