If any famous personality encapsulated what it meant to be a true artist, it was David Bowie: musician, actor, fashion icon and all-round innovator. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that the man behind many artistic guises, such as Ziggy Stardust, was also the curator of a vast and eclectic personal Art collection, spanning many eras, styles and disciplines. Following the Brixton-born star’s untimely death in January this year, only days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album Blackstar, Sotheby’s in London has announced that they will be undertaking the task of auctioning these works from 1st-10th November this year.
Entitled ‘Bowie/Collector’, the New Bond Street galleries will play host to the sale and exhibition of around 400 works, encompassing modern British art and movements including Surrealism, contemporary African art, outsider art and pieces from the Memphis group. Bowie’s extraordinary collection of paintings and sculptures, expected to sell for $13 million (£10 million), boasts works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frank Auerbach, Damien Hirst, Ettore Sottsass, Peter Lanyon and Henry Moore. Not limited to canvas, potential buyers can also expect to see design furniture and a bizarre turntable created by Italian brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in the sixties.
Preceding the auction due to take place later this year, those of us unable to splash the cash on a original Basquiat can enjoy an exclusive preview of the Thin White Duke’s personal gallery in London from 20th July to 9th August, before it goes on to be displayed in Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong.
As a man whose legacy is intertwined with fashion, theatre and art, the works on auction are what Sotheby’s European Chairman Oliver Barker describes as “unscripted” and “understated”. He went on to reveal that the icon’s life as an art aficionado “was something he kept almost entirely hidden from public view”. Simon Hucker, Senior Specialist in Modern & Post-War British Art at Sotheby’s, highlights Bowie’s need for a connection or feeling of inspiration from the artists whose work he collected, also pointing to the surreal artistic elements in many of his videos, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, to name one.
The first public display of such a private aspect of Bowie’s extraordinarily creative life offers fans, buyers and art critics alike a unique insight into a selection of exceptional pieces previously owned by an exceptional man, “one of the 20th century’s greatest creative spirits”.
