Popiconic moment 5: The electric Dylan controversy, Maggie's Farm. Oil

Urban Pop art in your own home by cult artist Sly.

On July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan, up to then a traditional acoustic protest singer, performed his first electric concert at the Newport Folk Festival.

"Well, fuck them if they think they can keep electricity out of here!”

On a whim he said he wanted to play electric. He then assembled a band and rehearsed that night at a mansion being used by festival organiser.

This painting is the popiconic moment when the sound of both booing and cheering can be heard in Dylan's first song, "Maggie's Farm",

Ironically the song contains the lines:
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.

It goes on to say:
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

Dylan did not return to the Newport festival for 37 years. In an enigmatic gesture, he performed sporting a wig and fake beard.

He’s just won the Nobel Peace Prize for the lyrics, which he seems to be rejecting - silly sod!

Spiel By Steeve with additional material lifted from Wikipedia.

These are not prints as each is individually done and signed to order and consequently vary a little from the illustrated picture. These paintings are sprayed onto canvas 20 mm thick and ready to hang.



It is likely that Juan Sly has become the biggest seller of original artworks in the UK. An artist exhibiting in mainly spray stencils and oils. He has exhibited at the Saatchi (a proper gallery with pillars and everything!) alongside the likes of Banksy, Terry O'Neil, Tracy Emin and Vic Reeves and now has a permanent collections in Germany, Detroit and Uk, alongside Damien Hirst and some other artists you might have heard of plus private collections around the globe. His works rock from humour to anti-war, sex to surreal. Particularly fond of the stencil medium as it allows him to quickly respond to events and ideas and gives the work that gritty illegal look. Stencils naturally allow the works to be re-sprayed and so become affordable and disposable. He likes the fact that people can buy art that they like and not to show off how much they can afford. You can find them in bedsits, legal offices in the Temple or stuck to a fence in Bristol.

Spiel by Steeve.