Exit Through the Gift Shop

1974-01-15/6, Capitol Center, Landover, MD

Amedeo Modigliani’s portrait of Elena Povolozky and visitor

One fun part of doing my show-by-show Rolling Thunder series was exploring what the motley crew did during the daytimes. Because they were filming scenes for Renaldo and Clara, they were constantly out and about, and their antics were well-documented.

That’s not the case generally on Tour ’74. What reports we get of Bob exploring his surroundings during the daytime are, for the most part, just brief sightings. Taking in some folk music in Chicago. Ice skating in Philly. No photos of any of that. His outing to see Ronnie Hawkins in Toronto was an exception—and so is his bit of Washington DC tourism around his shows in the suburb of Landover, Maryland.

In between his two shows on the 15th and 16th, Dylan did some sightseeing. He went to the DC art museum The Phillips Collection, taking in some paintings. Dylan’s interest in visual art had been burgeoning in recent years, with his work appearing on the cover of Self Portrait, Planet Waves, and The Band’s Music from Big Pink. Only a few months after this tour ended, he would begin studying with artist Norman Raeben. He credited what he learned from Raeben with helping him write Blood on the Tracks, which he would record that fall.

But that’s still to come. For now, here are some delightful photos of Bob and his friend and ours Louie Kemp taking in some art at The Phillips Collection:

El Greco, The Repentant St. Peter, 1600 – 1605 [can any art-head ID the others?]