Bob Dylan: Folk Icon, Global Performer, Renaissance Artist

Born in Duluth, Minnesota, on 24 May 1941, Dylan spent most of his childhood in the iron-mining town of Hibbing. He taught himself piano and guitar and played in several bands, both in his hometown and in Duluth. In 1961, heavily influenced by Woody Guthrie and other American folk artists, Dylan moved to New York and began to play in the burgeoning folk music scene of Greenwich Village. He was signed to Columbia Records by renowned Artists and Repertoire executive John Hammond in 1961, and his self-titled debut album was released in 1962.

His first success came in the early 1960s as a live performer in the coffee houses and folk clubs of New York’s Greenwich Village. He continues to traverse the globe each year, performing more than 100 concerts annually in front of crowds who embrace his new material with the same fervour as his classic output. In recent years, his work as an author and visual artist has further burnished his popularity and acclaim: a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list in 2004, and since 2007 major exhibitions of his paintings have been shown at some of the world’s most prestigious museums and galleries.