Bob Dylan exhibition ‘Retrospectrum’ to open in Manchester

The exhibition opens at Castle Fine Art on Saturday 16th May, six decades on from the Nobel-winning singer’s infamous Free Trade Hall gig.

Date published: 14th May 2026

An exhibition showcasing Bob Dylan’s visual art is heading to Manchester. Retrospectrum, the acclaimed retrospective exhibition chronicling 18 years of the folk legend, opens for free at Castle Fine Art and runs from Saturday 16th May to Sunday 2nd August. 

Bob Dylan's 2018 artwork 'Railroad Crossings'

Retrospectrum has previously been showcased at Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum in 2019/20, Miami’s Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum in 2021/22, and Rome’s MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art in 2022/23. Featuring 30 of Dylan’s original artworks, Retrospectrum received plaudits in previous runs from the likes of The Telegraph - who compared the Nobel Prize for Literature-winning singer’s canvases to Edward Hopper - and The Washington Post who wrote, “America’s master lyricist has also captured moments in a new series of paintings that, just like his songs, are intimate and a bit of a mystery.”

The opening in Manchester arrives sixty years on from Dylan’s infamous May 17th 1966 Free Trade Hall gig in the city, where the singer’s controversial embrace of electric instruments led to a heckler dubbing him “Judas”, an incident which has since become legendary in music folklore. 

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Header image: Bob Dylan in 1974 / Rokh Global