David Bowie's art collection
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David Bowie (1947–2016) owned an extensive private art collection which included paintings, sculpture and furniture. He started collecting art in the mid-1970s and continued through the end of his life. His collection included paintings that he himself painted.
Bowie reportedly began appreciating and collecting art in the mid 1970s, when he moved to Berlin to escape his cocaine addiction.[1] In 1987, he said he'd stopped collecting art for a while, saying "I used to, when it was worth collecting. ... I don't like the idea of buying art at ridiculous prices. I actually used to prefer to go around to shops and find bits and things. I mean, I got a great collection of German expressionist wood block prints, but I got them ten years ago, before German expressionism became fashionable."[2]
Artist and writer Matthew Collings characterized the collection as "bohemian, romantic, expressive, emotional art".[3] Bowie was described by an art advisor as "a true collector. His acquisitions were not commercially motivated; he cared about the art, not the market. His was a deeply personal, eclectic collection, reflecting his British roots and his real passion for art."[4] He was frequently featured in ARTnews' "Top 200 collectors" lists.[5] Bowie's collection of contemporary African Art, was described as "[demonstrating] an appreciation that goes far beyond the all-too-frequent exoticism and 'othering' of art from the continent."[5] In 1995, Bowie pushed for an exhibition of South African art, and he wrote about the 1995 Johannesburg Biennale for the magazine Modern Painters.[5] By 1998, Bowie was a board member of Modern Painters, and he participated in the Nat Tate art hoax.[6]
Bowie would also attend gallery openings, often with his wife Iman, such as in 1999 when visiting an opening with artist Damian Loeb,[7] or at New York's Gagosian Gallery in early 1995.[8]
Bowie wrote songs about art and artists throughout his career, referencing or naming artists including: "Andy Warhol" (1971);[9] Jean Genet, whose name inspired the name of the song "The Jean Genie" (1972) and whose themes of outsider identity influenced much of his work;[10] Bob Dylan in "Song for Bob Dylan" (1971);[11] and Chris Burden, whose art inspired the song "Joe the Lion" (1977).[12] His album 1. Outside (1995), whose name was inspired by Outsider art,[13] includes the song "Thru These Architects Eyes", which names architects Philip Johnson and Richard Rogers.[14] Bowie's friend and collaborator Iggy Pop is also the indirect subject of several of Bowie's songs, and was one of the inspirations for Bowie's Ziggy Stardust on-stage persona's name.[15]
Notable artists and works in the collection
"Art was, seriously, the only thing I’d ever wanted to own."
Notable artists included in Bowie's collection included:
- Outsider art from the Gugging Group[18]
- Frank Auerbach - 1965 Head of Gerda Boehm (l.)[18]
- Jean-Michel Basquiat - 1984 Air Power[17]
- David Bomberg[19]
- Achille Castiglioni and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni[20] - 1960s Brionvega RR 126 radiogram[3]
- Patrick Caulfield[18]
- Marcel Duchamp - 1964 A Bruit Secret[3][17]
- Harold Gilman - A London Interior[21][unreliable source?]
- Romuald Hazoumè[5]
- Erich Heckel[19]
- Gertrude Hermes[19]
- Damien Hirst[17]
- Ivon Hitchens[19]
- Peter Howson[19]
- Leon Kossoff[17]
- Peter Lanyon[18]
- Wyndham Lewis[22][unreliable source?]
- Memphis Milano[18]
- Henry Moore[17]
- Odd Nerdrum[19]
- Winifred Nicholson[19]
- Méret Oppenheim[19]
- Francis Picabia[16]
- Peter Paul Rubens[16]
- Egon Schiele[16]
- William Scott[19]
- Ettore Sottsass[23]
- Stanley Spencer[17]
- Graham Sutherland[18]
- Tintoretto - Altarpiece of Saint Catherine[16][19][24]
- William Turnbull[19]
- Euan Uglow[19]
- John Virtue[17]
- Jack Butler Yeats[25]
Basquiat's Air Power, estimated at US $3.5 million to be the most expensive single piece of art in Bowie's collection,[17] sold for $8.8 million in 2016.[4]
