David Bowie remembered
Pop Culture & Collectibles. christies
In its 250-year history, Christie’s has built its reputation on dealing in the works of great artists. David Bowie, who passed away yesterday aged 69, is undoubtedly one of them
From his own paintings, hand-written lyrics and stage costumes to iconic photographic portraits and live shots in his various guises and as his many personas, the life and prodigious output of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century has long excited collectors.
David Bowie, the shape-shifting recording artist responsible for such era-defining albums as Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Low, was, it could be argued, a living, breathing work of art. Celebrated in 2013 as a style icon and cultural lightning rod by the V&A in London, whose major retrospective David Bowie Is… became the museum’s fastest-ever selling show, Bowie touched, and was touched by, creativity in all its forms — not simply music but also fashion, photography, video art and graphic design.
His penultimate album, The Next Day, released without warning in 2013, was heralded as a long-awaited return, and a serious return to form, and the critically acclaimed Blackstar, his 25th and final studio album, released just days before his death, now looks set to provide a fitting final act to a career that consistently defied categorisation.
Here, in tribute, we look back at some of the David Bowie lots auctioned by Christie’s over the years that offer insights into a truly remarkable and multi-faceted life.
Becoming David Bowie
This rare fold-out press release entitled ? Bowie dates from 1966, and features a statement from the 19-year-old David Jones, explaining why he has adopted the stage name David Bowie. ‘There are too many Davie Jones’s,’ he argues at one point. The lot was sold in November 2008 in the Punk/Rock sale at Christie’s New York.
Ziggy Stardust
In May 2004, an auction of Pop Memorabilia featured a lot comprising a collection of 14 petty cash receipts concerning expenses incurred during the Ziggy Stardust tour of the U.S.A., 22 September to 2 December, 1972.
These receipts were signed by various people involved in the tour, including Bowie’s first wife Angie, photographers Mick Rock and Lee Childers, guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, drummer Michael Woodmansey, Bowie’s personal hairdresser Sue Fussey, publicist Dai Davies, and manager Tony DeFries, among others. The lot also included a petty cash receipt signed by David Bowie while on holiday in Rome in 1973.
In 2007, a flamboyant stage costume worn by David Bowie in October 1973 was offered at auction. The costume was designed and made by Bowie’s friend Freddi Buretti, who Bowie had briefly tried to launch as the next Mick Jagger — a piece of conceptual art in itself. Bowie’s last public performance as Ziggy Stardust was a seminal July 1973 gig at the Hammersmith Odeon. This suit, however, was worn by the singer a few months later at the Marquee Club during the filming of a TV special, The 1980 Floor Show, shown on American television in November 1973.
Aladdin Sane
Brian Duffy’s work with David Bowie in the Seventies incorporated eight major photo sessions and the artwork for three album covers. One of these, the image commissioned for the cover of the album Aladdin Sane, is possibly the single-most visible representation of the mercurial star; Aladdin Sane was an evolution of the Ziggy Stardust persona that had preceded it.
In June 2010 Christie’s sold a rare page of lyrics, handwritten by David Bowie, for Jean Genie, from the album Aladdin Sane, released in 1972. The 18 lines were in black ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper, signed and inscribed Jean Genie ’72 Bowie.
Diamond Dogs
In June 2011, Christie’s sold two pages of working lyrics in David Bowie’s hand for the medley Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing Reprise from the album Diamond Dogs, Bowie’s eighth studio LP, which was released in 1974.
The two sheets were used during the recording sessions for the medley at Olympic Studios in Barnes, south-west London, during the early weeks of 1974. On this album, Bowie was experimenting for the first time with the use of the ‘cut-up’ writing technique made famous by the American author William S. Burroughs, in which passages of prose or orthodox lyrics were literally cut up by the artist and then reassembled.
These manuscripts provide a rare insight into Bowie’s creative methods at a key moment in his career, when he had abandoned his Ziggy Stardust character and was about to move to America. In particular, it is fascinating to see that he appears to have added the most personal and revealing lines of the song, which formed the climax of the medley, as a spontaneous decision — in keeping with the almost intuitive way in which he created his material during this period.
