Bob Dylan pittore sul lago

Characters - The legendary American singer-songwriter stayed in Como before the inauguration of the exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan If Bob Dylan's love for Italy has been known for some time - in 1998, before starting a concert in Turin, he said it was beautiful to be back in the most beautiful country in the world - who knows what the idea will be of our city in these days. Yes, because the greatest singer-songwriter in the history of rock chose to stay in Como before the inauguration, which took place yesterday at Palazzo Reale in Milan, of his exhibition of paintings dedicated to New Orleans. If in 2004 Dylan arrived on the shores of the Lario for his historic concert at Villa Erba in Cernobbio, in this case it is his now well-known passion for painting that brings him to our parts. Curiously, with a theme that in some way had already combined the fresh water of our lake with the muddy one of the Mississippi, since Davide Van De Sfroos had written a beautiful song about it called New Orleans. A magical city, which Dylan was not satisfied with singing in more than one song, but decided to put on canvas. And that musicians often love to dabble with brushes, with results in some cases more than dignified, as demonstrated, for example, by Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Franco Battiato, Ivan Graziani, John Mellencamp, Marilyn Manson. But when behind the color palette there is Mr. Bob Dylan, who already in some covers of his records - see Self Portrait, Planet Waves and Empire Burlesque - had demonstrated his qualities, it is clear that the fact assumes a certain relevance.  From New York to London, the most important museums have already successfully received his works. Paolo Vites, music critic who has written more than one book about Dylan, is enthusiastic: «This series - says the journalist - is very beautiful. Compared to the previous paintings, which portrayed hotel rooms or more or less imaginary landscapes, in this case Dylan took photographs of New Orleans in the 1940s, returning in a few years, from 2008 to 2011, a sequence of dark works, disturbing both in the colors and in the themes ». The famous American musician, as is his style, is not interested in the judgments of experts, so much so that the curator of the Milanese exhibition, Francesco Bonami, whom Dylan visited before its inauguration yesterday, said: "I am very happy that it is free, so that everyone can visit it and not just professionals in the sector ». Put your heart in peace: the great Bob has no intention of putting on his head even the crown of genius of painting. He hardly carries that of a musician, because when at 22 you make masterpieces such as The Freewheelin 'Bob Dylan (album that this year blows out 50 candles) that open with songs like Blowin' in The Wind, it is then difficult to free your head from certain burdens. One thing is certain: even what he paints, Dylan only tells what he sees. As in his songs, one travels into reality, without inventions or fictions. He remains an authentic narrator of our times, without personal interpretations or who knows what will to change the world which, instead, many have tried to attribute to him since the dawn of his career in the early 1960s. The New Orleans Series, an exhibition that will remain open in Milan until March 10, is in short, a great opportunity to meet another soul of Dylan, given that his paintings were unpublished in Italy. Although Francesco De Gregori a painting signed Bob Dylan has already been awarded for some time.