History Will Absolve Me

Painting by Bob Dylan. 2024

A photograph of the original painting here, recently posted on the Halcyon Gallery website —

—

—

History Will Absolve Me. 2024. Watercolour on paper. 66 x 96.5 cm

https://www.halcyongallery.com/content/feature/408/detail/artworks1407/

—

The painting appears to be based partly on this photograph

— After a bit of searching around it looks like this photograph was first uploaded to Istockphotos by ‘bluejayphotos’ in 2017. Since then it has been used by many publications online, often in relation to Route 66 trips/articles, even though Route 66 is over 100 miles away from Death Valley. The original photograph upload doesn’t list the road or exact location though.

Eventually I found that this road is the eastern approach to Death Valley — Highway 374 from Beatty, Nevada. A straight road for ten miles. The scene looks quite different on Google street view though, and on other photographs of this scene without the lens of the camera that seems to have been used here. A great photograph. I notice the newly painted line isn’t quite straight — kinks here and there, with the old line visible beneath. This can be seen on Bob Dylan’s painting too.

—

It’s interesting that Bob Dylan painted another scene from Beatty, NV. 2019 Beaten Path. —

—

Of course the green/blue car has been put into this scene by Bob Dylan.

It looks to be a kind of old classic car, maybe from the 1950’s.

The title given to this painting may be another sign of where the car is from. History Will Absolve Me. A line and title of a speech by Fidel Castro in 1953 —

https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1953/10/16.htm

“All these laws and others would be based on the exact compliance of two essential articles of our Constitution: one of them orders the outlawing of large estates, indicating the maximum area of land any one person or entity may own for each type of agricultural enterprise, by adopting measures which would tend to revert the land to the Cubans. The other categorically orders the State to use all means at its disposal to provide employment to all those who lack it and to ensure a decent livelihood to each manual or intellectual laborer. None of these laws can be called unconstitutional. The first popularly elected government would have to respect them, not only because of moral obligations to the nation, but because when people achieve something they have yearned for throughout generations, no force in the world is capable of taking it away again.

The problem of the land, the problem of industrialization, the problem of housing, the problem of unemployment, the problem of education and the problem of the people’s health: these are the six problems we would take immediate steps to solve, along with restoration of civil liberties and political democracy.

This exposition may seem cold and theoretical if one does not know the shocking and tragic conditions of the country with regard to these six problems, along with the most humiliating political oppression.”

Fidel Castro here speaking from grave…

..and by a kind of chance.. Fidel Castro was born 100 years ago today. August 13, 1926.

—

Many classic American cars from the 1950’s are still in use in Cuba. I came across this page here https://planetbell.me/2016/02/29/the-classic-cars-of-cuba/

“Why Are There So Many Classic Cars in Cuba?

After Castro took power in 1959, the Communist Party restricted the ownership of cars, and shortly thereafter, the United States embargo took hold, banning imports of cars and auto parts to the island nation. For the last 57 years, Cubans have been salvaging parts and Frankensteining vehicles to keep them running. The resilience of the cars is a metaphor for the resiliency of the Cuban people.

Today, some cars in Havana have been restored to their original glory – with refurbished interiors and bright, shiny paint jobs – and are now rented out to tourists who cruise along the Malecon.”

—

I am wondering whether the car in the painting is from a particular scene in a Fidel Castro /Cuban film or documentary —

I will update the page here if I come across anything else that could be connected.

—

Possibly connected to the car here — There is a classic car museum in Cuba, Missouri.

“Welcome to Cuba, Missouri! Also known as the Route 66 Mural City, Cuba is known for art, history, water, and wine!”

https://cubamomurals.com/2009/05/20-things-to-do-in-cuba-missouri-route-66-mural-city/

..As I mentioned previously though, this road isn’t Route 66. It’s Highway 374 from Beatty, Nevada. The eastern approach into Death Valley.

“It is a testament to American engineering and Cuban ingenuity that these cars from the 1950s are still in use today.” https://planetbell.me/2016/02/29/the-classic-cars-of-cuba/

Cars — Theme Time Radio Hour. With your host Bob Dylan

—

Either way, Fidel Castro was born 100 years ago today —

—

nightly moth

Havana Moon and The Lavender Moon /with a new painting of mine. From Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour —Moon

A new oil painting of mine /Under the light of the moon.

Substack notes:

https://substack.com/@nightlymoth/note/c-311319372?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=lqmvf