Dylan’s Self Portrait deliberately flaunted mediocrity as a break from his own icon status

Evidence

Could he really bring it back home, again? Four years after Blonde on Blonde, Dylan released a second double LP provocatively titled Self Portrait, its cover graced with a naïve expressionist likeness the artist would later claim to have painted in five minutes. What manner of icon was this? One need only compare Self Portrait’s insultingly grotesque cover to the complex image that graced Bringing It All Back Home to wonder what was left of Dylan’s mind. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1574

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the recurring theme across the book of major artists deliberately sabotaging their own icon status — connects to the 1966-71 pattern of withdrawal/reinvention in prior chapters.