Artists often like to present their creativity in a variety of ways. Let's be honest: it doesn't always work (see: Eddie Murphy, singer or Mick Jagger, actor). However, some artists hit their stride regardless of the medium. Such is the case with Leonard Cohen, who’s spent the past six decades creating art with a pen, a guitar – and a paintbrush.
Cohen's career as a poet begin while attending McGill University in his hometown of Montreal. The university press first published Cohen the writer, releasing his debut book of poems, Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1957.
Some years later the poet added another creative mantle: that of novelist, as Cohen moved from Montreal to the Greek island of Hydra. There, he produced a pair of novels, including the classic experimental work Beautiful Losers.
In 1967, with Songs of Leonard Cohen, the world met Cohen the crooner, who has now released 12 studio albums, including Old Ideas, which came out in late January 2012.
Behind it all, though, was Cohen the visual artist, continuously drawing on the pages of his notebooks for an audience of one. Eventually, the drawings were extracted for publication in Cohen's 2006 volume of poetry, Book of Longing, and have been on tour ever since. In late 2011, the works made a stop at Vancouver's Granville Fine Art.
"The exhibit went incredibly well, lots of work sold and tons of people coming through," said Linda Lando, curator of the gallery, located on Vancouver's West End. She said the show, which ran at her gallery from September to December 2011, attracted a range of Cohen fans of all ages. But, she said, "the boomers are the folks that tend to be the most attracted to Leonard Cohen in all of his artistic mediums."
Unlike a more traditional art show, Cohen's attracted a community of music fans to the gallery. Lando said they came with stories about Leonard Cohen, tales of sightings, and talked about the songs and their meanings. Given the rock star status of the artist, even a few super fans turned up, said Lando. "We had some people come in that had attended over 40 concerts from Leonard’s most recent concert tour. We had many, many swooning women, still totally taken by Leonard Cohen even [though he is] age 77."
Scroll through the gallery above for an introduction to the visual work of Leonard Cohen, with commentary from Linda Lando.