09/01/2022
Today is David Bowie’s 75th Birthday
Of course, we all know that Bowie was (to borrow a phrase from Rolling Stone) “The greatest rock star ever” but few of us know the incredible contribution he played to the fine art world. Over his lifetime Bowie was a painter, a patron, an avid art collector, a critic, an independent publisher of art books and sat on the board of Modernist painter magazine.
As a collector, his private collection boasted pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damian Hirst and his personal hero, Marcel Duchamp. However, it also included works by very obscure artists from the UK and across the African continent.
He used his considerable sway to highlight great artists that were often sidelined in the fine art world. In 1995, Bowie pushed for a UK exhibition of contemporary South African artists saying he wanted to "challenge our preconceptions of 'otherness' and establish African art as being some of the most tantalizing and provocative work to be seen. If we continue to categorize art that is outside our cultural experience as somehow 'low art,' curio or merely artifact, we will be dealing these artists a serious injustice and we ourselves will be far poorer for it."
As an independent art publisher he and Karen Wright established 21 publishing in 1998. According to a 2018 Artspace piece by Shannon Lee, Bowie himself had a very similar mission statement to our humble podcast. “Bowie's vision for 21 was populist in its intentions, seeking to re-address British art without all the dense, pretentious art-talk. Bowie wanted 21 to make art, and art criticism accessible”
They even went as far as pranking the great and good of the art world with a fake biography of the forgotten modernist genius Nat Tate. During the book launch many important art figures praised the book for finally brining this modernist master to the attention of the masses. The only problem was, Nat Tate never existed. His name was taken from an amalgamation of the two biggest galleries in England, the National and the Tate.
We love that kind of Dadaist spirit at ‘Is it art tho?’ Podcast.
So Happy Birthday Starman! ✨ Thank you for your service to art and music
📷 David Bowie with his 1976 portrait of Iggy Pop
📷 The David Bowie shrine in the Is it art tho? Studio
📷 From Bowie’s private collection - Romuald Hazoumè, Miss Pretoria (1995)
📷 Front cover of 21’s fake Biography of Nat Tate
This is only a taste of Bowie’s contributions to fine art. For more info see this article: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/the-artist-collects/is-there-art-on-mars-how-david-bowie-shaped-the-art-world-and-vice-versa-55334
