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David Bowie Art Collection On Display Pending Auction, Best Festival Performances Revisited

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 03:14 PST, Jul 27, 2016

David Bowie’s private art collection is set to go on display before heading for auction in November this year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Bowie/Collector collection will include masterpieces by Henry Moore and Damien Hirst.

The art collection will be put on display to the public for the first time in November and will then be offered as the three-part auction. The auction will be comprised of about 400 artworks from David Bowie’s personal collection.

It’s estimated that David Bowie’s private art collection exceeds $13 million. The “Space Oddity” singer, who died at the age of 69 in January this year just two days after his birthday, had been part of the music, art, drama, and fashion industries for five decades.

But even though David Bowie always kept his artistic side open to the public, his art collector side was “something he kept almost entirely hidden from public view,” according to a spokesperson for the auction house Sotheby’s. Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Europe chairman, said the collection was put together by “the 20th century’s greatest creative spirits.”

“Eclectic, unscripted, understated: David Bowie’s collection offers a unique insight into the personal world of one of the 20th century’s greatest creative spirits.”

David Bowie’s personal art collection includes artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Air Power” painting, which is expected to sell for up to $6.13 million, as well as Damien Hirst’s kaleidoscopic painting.

But paintings are not the only art detail in David Bowie’s private art collection, as it also includes sculptures and design furniture as well as a record player by Italian brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni produced back in the 1960s.

David Bowie’s private art collection will be put on display to the public at Sotheby’s galleries in London in early November this year, while previews will be organized by Sotheby’s around the world.

In other news, the Guardian has recently revisited some of the late David Bowie’s best festival performances in order to pay tribute to his musical legacy. The list includes his gig at Beckenham Free Festival in 1969 and Glastonbury Festival in 2000.

During his 1969 Beckenham Free Festival performance, David Bowie was a 22-year-old boy who stole the spotlight from then-famous bands like The Strawbs, Comus, and Appendix Part One. In fact, this gig is considered to be Bowie’s launching point of his outstanding musical career.

It was then when David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was hitting musical charts. And in addition to his hit single, Bowie also presented such singles as “An Occasional Dream” and “Wide-Eyed Boy From Free Cloud.”

During the performance, there were issues with audio, but nonetheless, David Bowie’s show was received well and it’s to this very day considered to be one of his best festival performances.

His Glastonbury Festival performance in 2000, meanwhile, was a whole new experience for David Bowie, as the English singer was enjoying his international fame and recognition. At that time, Bowie had quite a few nicknames, one of the most frequently used ones were The Thin White Duke, The Goblin King, and Ziggy Stardust.

During his Glastonbury gig, David Bowie’s performed the songs of various genres, for which he was already considered to be one of the best musicians on the planet. With some estimators saying the gig was watched by a quarter of a million people, Bowie gave, as many say, his greatest live performance ever.

David Bowie was clearly very excited when he came on stage at Glastonbury and started his four-song encore with Heroes.

“I’ve not been for thirty years. It’s f***ing great!”

[Photo by AP Photo/Frank Augstein]

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