Open Window. Painting By Bob Dylan

(Finding the person in this painting)

I recently came across this painting by Bob Dylan,

Open Window. 2022. Acrylic on canvas. 91 x 122 cm.

After attempting to find out who this person in the painting is, in a few different ways… With the idea that it is likely a scene from a film of some kind… I eventually found the person — She is briefly shown looking through an open window in the 1948 silent documentary film, In The Street, by Helen Levitt. The film was shot with a small 16mm cameras (apparently often hidden), in the mid 1940’s, in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City. Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, and James Agee were the cinematographer.

I have got hold of a copy of the film, and put some of the music of Bob Dylan with it. Set to play here at 9:30 PM (UK time),

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The woman at the open window appears towards the end of the film.

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The streets of the poor quarters of great cities are, above all, a theatre and a battleground. There, unaware and unnoticed, every human being is a poet, a masker, a warrior, a dancer; and in his innocent artistry he projects, against the turmoil of the street, an image of human existence.

The attempt in this short film is to capture this image.

I find it interesting to consider how Bob Dylan, then young Robert Zimmerman, would been around the same age as a lot of the children in this film. For this brief moment in time, this woman, leaning on the window sill.. (It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train To Cry), smoking a cigarette, is captured on film (apparently 16mm cameras were used discretely, so some of the people shown wouldn’t have known that they were being filmed..), and nearly eighty years later someone who was a child at that time, has painted her. That person happens to be Bob Dylan. I don’t know if there is any way to find out her name, who she is … I suppose quite a few of the children in the film are still alive, like I say, around Bob Dylan’s age. In theory this woman could still be alive, but she would be well into her 100’s..

I have the feeling that the woman at the open window didn’t know that she was being filmed. Although at the start of the film there are some brief glances to the camera at the end of the scenes with adults in, which I feel like were part of the comedy of the film .. It reminded me of a Charlie Chaplin film, when he would briefly glance at the camera, the timing… Of course there are the parts where people are staring directly at the camera. About half way through, a man in hat. All the children at the end bustling around the camera .. and then the child staring directly into the camera for an extended time, seemingly with pain in his eyes (“I can see the history of the whole human race, it’s right there, it’s written on your face”). In each of these cases it seems to me that the film takes a turn just afterwards, a change of pace, a new chapter, a different time almost.

I watched the film for the first time yesterday, the silent version, without a music score, and decided to attempt to put some of the music of Bob Dylan with the film.

One interesting aspect, Charlie Chaplin related, is that there is a scene towards the end where some children are in a line in front of a wall… a girl quickly fixes her hair with both hands, the boy next to her sees this and mimics her, doing the same to his hair, and laughing as he does. Just after this he glances at the camera, still laughing. Everything about this reminded me of a scene from a Charlie Chaplin film, and the boy seemed like a small version of Charlie Chaplin. Late last night, reading more about the film, I discovered that Charlie Chaplin apparently liked this film, and one particular scene made him jump up from his seat!.. Yes, the scene described was the one with the boy that I mention here.

(To be continued..)

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Best wishes,

nightly moth.