Tangled Up in Blue

usic can both set the mood in a work of art and inspire the artist. For Sudanese artist Mohammad Omer Khalil, Bob Dylan's music relates to his feelings regarding death and destruction in Sudan. As he says, "I listened to Dylan every day . . . at a point in my life [when] there was an empathy with the sadness and anger in Dylan's life and music." In this technically sophisticated abstract print, Khalil's use of the deepest black suggests sorrow, trepidation and anger. At the same time, his roiling black ink is, quite literally, "tangled up with blue," and this window of color hints at a break in the darkness.

Mohammad Omer Khalil
b. 1936, Sudan
Tangled Up in Blue
1986
Etching, aquatint and silver leaf on paper
37 1/4 x 47 1/2 in.
Museum purchase, 92-4-3