David Bowie Is Virtual - Press Release

“Welcome to virtual reality”

After touring the globe for the past six years, the phenomenally successful ‘David Bowie is’ exhibition has come to an end. But the show must go on! This fall, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., in collaboration with the David Bowie Archive, Planeta, and V&A, will release a digital recreation of the exhibition on smartphones as an augmented reality experience. In the spring, a redesigned ‘David Bowie is’ will arrive on all major virtual reality platforms.

These new digital versions of ‘David Bowie is’ will add unprecedented depth and intimacy to the exhibition experience, allowing the viewer to engage with the work of one of the world’s most popular and influential artists as never before. The David Bowie Archive will donate a portion of the profits to the V&A and Brooklyn Museum.

Keep reading for the full press release.

#DBisVirtual

DAVID BOWIE IS VIRTUAL

July 16, 2018 -- Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. will release an augmented and virtual reality adaptation of the iconic museum retrospective ‘David Bowie is.’ Planeta, a product studio in New York City, will develop the experience for mobile devices and all major VR/AR platforms in collaboration with the David Bowie Archive and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

‘David Bowie is’ was a record-breaking exhibition that drew over 2 million visitors in the 12 cities where it was presented. It was the most visited touring exhibition at the V&A - the world’s greatest museum of decorative arts, design and performance. The show explored the creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades.

The digital experience, a first of its kind, will deliver an astonishing, but deftly connected sequence of audio-visual spaces through which the work and artifacts of Bowie’s life can be experienced. 3D scans will preserve and present his fabulous costumes and treasured objects in meticulous detail. The experience may even allow a spectator to virtually step into one of Bowie’s outfits and see themselves in it.

David Bowie was one of the most influential artists of our era. Both the visual richness of this show and the visionary nature of Bowie and his art, makes this a particularly ideal candidate for a VR/AR adaptation. It will be an entirely new experience of ‘David Bowie is,’ one that enhances this iconic show with elements that only VR and AR can provide, yet remains firmly grounded in the work of this extraordinary artist.

The experience will – like the museum show – be offered in nine different languages. The first release is expected for fall 2018. The David Bowie Archive will be donating a share of the profits from this project to the V&A and the Brooklyn Museum.

Visit davidbowieisreal.com to stay connected to this exciting project.

Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. organized ‘David Bowie is’ in Tokyo in 2017.

Planeta is a New York product studio that builds expressive tools and experiences in new media.

David Bowie is leaving Brooklyn

“Seven days to see my life…”

David Bowie is, which officially hit 2,000,000 visitors last month, has entered its last week at the Brooklyn Museum, the final stop of its global tour.

Since 2013, David Bowie is has visited 12 venues on five continents, becoming the most-visited international touring show in the V&A’s 165-year history.

o V&A Museum, London, UK, from 23 March to 11 August 2013

o Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, from 25 September to 27 November 2013

o Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo, Brazil from 31 January to 20 April 2014

o Martin-Gropius-bau, Berlin, Germany from 20 May – 24 August 2014

o Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA from 23 September 2014 – 4 January 2015

o Philharmonie de Paris/Cite de la Musique, Paris, France from 2 March – 31 May 2015

o Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne, Australian from 16 July – 1 November 2015

o Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands from 15 December 15 – 10 April 2016

o Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo) from 14 July - 13 November 2016

o TERRADA G1, Tokyo, Japan from 8 January - 9 April 2017

o Museu del Disseny, Barcelona, Spain, from 25 May 2017

o Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, from 2 March 2018 – 15 July 2018

Over 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, set designs, album artwork and rare performance material from the past five decades were brought together from the David Bowie Archive for the very first time. It demonstrated how Bowie’s work has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design, theatre and contemporary culture and focussed on his creative processes, shifting style and collaborative work with diverse designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre and film.

Around 312,000 visitors saw David Bowie is at the V&A in London, where the museum opened late to cope with demand to view the sell-out show. The exhibition was also the subject of a feature film, David Bowie is happening now.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM

Welcome To The Blackout, Christiane F. and Baal chart

“Get me off the streets (get some protection)”

To mark the arrival of David Bowie’s Christiane F. – Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo soundtrack at #5 on the latest official vinyl album chart, Denis O’Regan has given us another exclusive from his recently published Ricochet book of David Bowie and the real Christiane F., Christiane Felscherinow.

They are pictured disembarking from the 1983 Bowie tour jet in Germany, in June 1983. Denis remembers that Christiane joined the Bowie entourage for the German leg of the tour.

While we’re on the subject of the charts, Welcome To The Blackout (Live London ’78) (WTTB) fared even better by entering the official album chart Top 20 (all formats, not just vinyl) at #16.

To complete the hat trick, the 10" EP of David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht’s Baal has entered the vinyl singles chart at #2, where it joins four other Bowie singles in the Top 40:

#02 David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht’s Baal

#27 "Heroes"

#35 Let’s Dance

#38 Golden Years

#39 Beauty And The Beast

Check out www.Itsahugeboxedset.com to learn more about #bowie1983book.

#BowieWTTB #BowieChristianeF #BowieBAAL #BowieVinyl #DavidBowieRicochet #bowie1983book #DenisORegan

Ziggy killed off forty five years ago tonight

“Not only is it the last show of the tour”

As you’ve no doubt noticed, today marks the 45th anniversary of David Bowie’s final Ziggy and The Spiders show, which took place at Hammersmith Odeon on July 3rd, 1973.

On this very evening forty five years ago, a stunned and somewhat bewildered audience left the venue having witnessed Ziggy’s final show to a paying audience*, complete with a farewell speech that many weren't sure if they had heard correctly.

Of course, the “we” of “the last show that we’ll ever do...” referred to Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars collectively, as Bowie himself was back on the road in North America less than a year later with The Year Of The Diamond Dogs tour.

Nevertheless, that farewell speech followed by one of the more emotional performances of Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide is now the stuff of legend. Check out both here.

Finally, check this out this video on the official David Bowie Facebook page.

*Ziggy was resurrected one last time for The 1980 Floor Show at The Marquee in October.

#FarewellZiggy

Bowie returns to Hammersmith 35 years ago tonight

“Gimme your hands ’cos you're wonderful”

35 years ago tonight and almost ten years since he had retired Ziggy there in 1973, David Bowie returned to London’s Hammersmith Odeon in aid of the Brixton Neighbourhood Community Association.

Today is also the official release date of Denis O'Regan’s Ricochet, a bloody great big boxed set of 5 books, an exclusive vinyl 12", 3 signed prints all beautifully designed and housed in an enormous acrylic case...did we say, it's massive?

Anyway, to mark the official release of Ricochet and the anniversary of the Hammersmith show, Denis has kindly given us these exclusive shots from the night.

Here’s a bit more about today’s release...

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Serious David Bowie vinyl collectors will be in awe of ‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’. Included in the 15 kilo (33 pound) acrylic cased boxed set of five photographic books by Denis O’Regan is a 12 inch red vinyl single: A-side ‘Ricochet’, B-side ‘Let’s Dance’, both tracks remastered in 2018 by Nile Rodgers. The vinyl itself - along with the boxed set - is limited to only 2000 copies. It will never be made available outside of this collection, and is released on June 30th 2018, the 35th anniversary of David’s ‘Serious Moonlight’ charity concert at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in aid of the Brixton Neighbourhood Community Association.

In addition, the boxed set contains three signed and numbered fine art limited edition prints. Each one is accompanied by a digitally authenticated certificate. Another certificate authenticates and describes the collection within the acrylic case - including the vinyl - and features a David Bowie estate stamp inspired by the ‘ex libris' mark that David attached to his personal book collection, designed for Moonlight Books by ‘Blackstar’ artist Jonathan Barnbrook. It too is invisibly stamped with digitally created DNA and referenced in the Tagsmart online database that can be accessed online by the buyer.

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It also contains a pair of white gloves for cleaner handling. True!

Stay tuned for more exclusives from Denis shortly. Also, check out www.Itsahugeboxedset.com to learn more about #bowie1983book.

#DavidBowieRicochet #bowie1983book #DenisORegan

Bowie fan art #18 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the Brooklyn Museum has fulfilled his dream that one day they should be exhibited. We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them.

As with several previous paintings, today’s likeness returns to that timeless source of visual inspiration, Bowie as the universe’s most beautiful alien, Thomas Jerome Newton, in the film The Man Who Fell To Earth.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition for a little over a fortnight, as the exhibition closes on July 15th.

Tickets and details of other Bowie-related events at the Brooklyn Museum here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

Christiane F and Baal vinyl in stores now

“With your silicone hump and your ten-inch BAAL”

Don’t forget exclusive (strictly ‘bricks and mortar’ only), vinyl reissues for retail stores today, including Christiane F. – Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo on red vinyl and a 10" trifold sleeve of David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht’s Baal.

Welcome To The Blackout now

“Someone’s back in town”

Forty years to the day since David Bowie began his three day stint at Earl’s Court in 1978, Parlophone issues the best-selling Record Store Day release on CD and digital.

“Brilliant throughout. Better than the official Stage...An essential purchase for Bowie fans.” – ★★★★★ David Buckley MOJO magazine

Don’t forget exclusive ‘bricks and mortar’ vinyl reissues for retail stores today, of Christiane F. – Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo on red vinyl and a 10" trifold sleeve of David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht’s Baal.

#BowieWTTB #BowieChristianeF #BowieBAAL #BowieVinyl #BowieMOJO

5-star WTTB review and 14-page cover feature in MOJO

“Under the moonlight, this serious moonlight”

The August 2018 issue of MOJO (MOJO 297) has 13 pages (plus cover), dedicated to the story of Let’s Dance.

David Buckley also reviews Welcome To The Blackout (WTTB, out 29 June) and gives the album a five star rating, with this observation:

“Brilliant throughout. Better than the official Stage...An essential purchase for Bowie fans.”

Here’s the blurb from the MOJO site...

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COVER STORY: 35 YEARS ON, THE EXTRAORDINARY story of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance and Serious Moonlight – his rollercoaster ride to fame and riches, weirdness and regret – with new interviews with Nile Rodgers, Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar and more.

COVERMOUNT CD: DANCE THE BLUES 15 tracks mining the classic R&B that inspired David Bowie to dance the blues: Little Richard, Johnny Otis, James Brown, Earl Bostic, Albert King and more!

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Go here for more detail regarding the August issue of MOJO, which is out on June 26.

#BowieMOJO #BowieLetsDance #BowieWTTB

20 pages of Bowie plus 24-page photo special in Classic Rock

“At the centre of it all, at the centre of it all”

The new issue of Classic Rock magazine (#251, Summer 2018), has fifty pages of Bowie-related content, including the cover, a full-page advert for next week’s Welcome To The Blackout release, thirteen pages dedicated to "BOWIE: His Greatest Songs" and a separate 24-page Bowie photo supplement, confusingly called "BOWIE BACKSTAGE", containing 26 classic Bowie photographs, of which, just 5 are actually backstage.

The magazine also has a 4-page article on the criminally underrated Pin Ups album with recollections of the recording sessions from Mike Garson, not to mention a 6-page Mott The Hoople retrospective, though we just did.

The "BOWIE: His Greatest Songs" feature has a chronologically listed 58 songs chosen by a similar number of rock luminaries. The selections inspired us to create a Spotify playlist of over four and a half hours.

Binge listen here.

The songs start at The London Boys and end with Lazarus, with some wonderful contributions from various rock persons. Here’s a bit of what Dave Matthews had to say regarding Blackstar:

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“The song and the album are both unbelievable. I find it almost infuriating that somebody could be such an unrelenting artist. Staring at one’s own mortality and calmly producing something of that magnitude – also doing it in secret! – is barely conceivable. I mean, put yourself in the place of his band. When they find out that he was there singing and making that music, knowing his time was dwindling…Good grief, what kind of a human being could do that?”

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We'll leave you with the list of songs, including our minor tweaks:

01 - The London Boys

02 - When I’m Five

03 - Space Oddity

04 - The Width Of A Circle

05 - Saviour Machine

06 - All The Madmen

07 - The Bewlay Brothers

08 - Life On Mars?

09 - Changes

10 - Queen Bitch

11 - Starman

12 - Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide

13 - Ziggy Stardust

14 - Moonage Daydream

15 - Hang On To Yourself

16 - Five Years

17 - Suffragette City

18 - All The Young Dudes (We’ve selected the Bowie/Mott hybrid for those who have never heard it)

19 - The Jean Genie

20 - John, I’m Only Dancing (Aladdin Sane session version as it’s sandwiched between two Aladdin Sane tracks)

21 - Drive-In Saturday

22 - Rebel Rebel

23 - Diamond Dogs

24 - 1984

25 - Fame

26 - Young Americans

27 - Stay

28 - Sound And Vision

29 - Breaking Glass

30 - Lust For Life (Iggy Pop)

31 - "Heroes"

32 - V-2 Schneider

33 - Boys Keep Swinging

34 - DJ

35 - Fashion

36 - Ashes To Ashes

37 - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

38 - Under Pressure (with Queen)

39 - Modern Love

40 - Let’s Dance

41 - China Girl

42 - Loving The Alien

43 - Absolute Beginners

44 - Under The God (Tin Machine)

45 - Some Are

46 - You Belong in Rock ‘N’ Roll (Not on Spotify. We have selected another Tin Machine track instead. I Can’t Read. A song Bowie liked enough to revisit for the soundtrack of The Ice Storm in 1997)

47 - The Buddha Of Suburbia

48 - The Hearts Filthy Lesson

49 - No Control

50 - Hallo Spaceboy

51 - I’m Afraid Of Americans

52 - The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell

53 - Thursday’s Child

54 - Slip Away

55 - New Killer Star

56 - Where Are We Now?

57 - Blackstar

58 - Lazarus

#BestOfBowie #ClassicRockMagazine

Life On Mars? single is 45 today

“As I ask you to focus on”

David Bowie’s Life On Mars? single was released forty five years ago today in the UK, June 22nd, 1973.

Though taken from the 1971 classic, Hunky Dory, it wasn’t released in its own right until 1973. Possibly capitalising on its popularity as a live number during the Ziggy Stardust shows in 1972, the song wasn’t actually performed often on the Aladdin Sane Tour of 1973, during which it was released. Nevertheless, it reached #3 on the official UK singles chart.

Pictured here is a still from Mick Rock’s beautiful Life On Mars? promotional video. Alongside it are the sheet music, the music press advert and the single cover (all UK) and the US Hunky Dory cover.

David’s handwriting at the top of the montage is taken from the original US trade advert for Hunky Dory, wherein David had scribbled a few notes on a piece of headed hotel stationary from The Warwick in New York regarding each of the tracks on Hunky Dory.

Taking into account the insertion and crossing out that David made to his original annotation, the entry for Life On Mars? read: “Life on Mars - This is a sensitive young girl’s reaction to...The Media.”.

However, a bit of close quarter scrutiny reveals what he had originally written: “Life on Mars - This is a sensitive young girl’s reaction to songs like My Way, films like Love Story and newspapers.”.

This is kind of ironic considering the note Bowie scribbled for Life On Mars? on the back sleeve of Hunky Dory read: “INSPIRED BY FRANKIE”, a reference to My Way being a part of the song’s history. But that’s a whole other story.

Watch Mick Rock’s reworked video for Life On Mars? (2016) on the Official David Bowie YouTube channel.

#HunkyDory #LifeOnMars #BowieMickRock #BowieLOM

Bowie fan art #17 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the Brooklyn Museum has fulfilled his dream that one day they should be exhibited. We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them. This method has proved quite successful so far.

Today’s painting depicts Bowie as Paul Ambrosius von Przygodski in the 1978 David Hemmings-directed, Just a Gigolo. The original photograph was taken by Christian Simonpietri.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition for just three more weeks before the exhibition closes on July 15th.

Tickets and details of other Bowie-related events at the Brooklyn Museum here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

2 millionth DB is visitor presented with signed litho

“Two million dreams…”

David Bowie is officially hit 2,000,000 visitors today. The feat was marked this afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum where a very appreciative Bowie fan, Nicole, received a signed lithograph of a Bowie self-portrait (used for the Outside album cover), a limited edition of the David Bowie Is book, a pair of Sennheiser headphones, and a premium subscription to Spotify.

Here’s how the Brooklyn Museum announced on Instagram:

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David Bowie is has officially hit 2,000,000 visitors! As the final stop of its global tour, we are thrilled to be part of this milestone day and to name Nicole as the lucky visitor! She’ll be traveling home to Dublin, Ireland with a suitcase full of swag from @vamuseum, @brooklynmuseum, @davidbowie, @sennheiser, and @spotify. Not only is she an avid Bowie fan, but this is also Nicole’s first trip to New York—Thanks for letting us be part of your New York experience!

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Tickets and details of other Bowie-related events at the Brooklyn Museum here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt

Bowie fan art #16 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the @brooklynmuseum has fulfilled his dream that one day they should be exhibited. We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them.

As with several previous paintings, today’s likeness is of Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton in the film The Man Who Fell To Earth. Based on two images, the original US TMWFTE poster and a still from the film.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition for one more month as the exhibition closes on July 15th.

Tickets and details of other Bowie-related events at the Brooklyn Museum here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

Denis O'Regan’s 1st official Bowie shoot is 40

“Had to get the train...”

On the 40th anniversary of David Bowie’s return to the UK for his stint of 1978 shows, Denis O'Regan has given us an exclusive shot from the first of them at Newcastle City Hall on June 14.

These were the first UK concerts for two years since Bowie’s 1976 Wembley gigs and Denis had the foresight to make sure he was there.

The image on the right is a previously unpublished photo from the night and the one on the left is one of the ones published in the NME review, albeit the correct way round here.

The review itself was glowing summed up by the subheading, “Bowie: two hours and ten minutes of excellence”.

Over to Denis...

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I vividly remember arriving at King’s Cross station to catch the Intercity 125 train to Newcastle in 1978, after I persuaded NME to cover David’s Newcastle City Hall show. Then I just remember squatting in the aisle between the front seats awaiting my three song allowance as Warszawa emanated from the PA - the anticipation was incredible.

This was the first time I had seen David live since Ziggy Stardust at Hammersmith Odeon five years earlier, and it was the first time I would shoot him as a professional photographer. I had no idea that in another five years I would spend the year touring the world with David.

After my three songs I snuck up to the balcony that runs around City Hall, and shot as much as I could. One of my photographs from that night is still probably my favourite of all the live pictures I took of David - it radiates cool.

Denis O'Regan - June 14, 2018

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Thanks for that Denis, exciting times. But, as you say, nothing compared to what would happen five years later.

Stay tuned for more exclusives from Denis shortly. Also, check out www.Itsahugeboxedset.com to learn more about #bowie1983book.

Much gratitude to Martyn Hammond for the ticket scan.

#DavidBowieRicochet #bowie1983book #DenisORegan

China Girl enters UK chart 35 years ago today

“Oh baby just you shut your mouth”

David Bowie’s China Girl single entered the UK chart on June 11 1983. Originally released at the end of May, the 7” was followed by a 7” picture disc (the first official commercial Bowie pic disc single), and a 12” vinyl single.

China Girl was a new version of a song which Bowie had co-written with Iggy Pop for the latter’s 1977 album The Idiot.

With co-production by Nile Rodgers, Bowie’s China Girl peaked at #2 in the UK chart and #10 in the US and was a top 10 hit in many other European countries. Sadly, Iggy’s original didn’t fare so well.

The David Mallet directed video caused controversy in some quarters with its re-enactment of the beach scene from the film From Here To Eternity and was banned in some countries.

Featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng and Bowie naked in the surf, Bowie described the video as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism. The video went on to win an MTV video award for Best Male Video.

China Girl (Bowie/Pop)

Original UK release date: May 31 1983

Highest chart position: UK: #2 US: #10

Originally appeared on: Let’s Dance

Produced by: David Bowie, Nile Rodgers

Video directed by: David Mallet

#BowieChinaGirl

David Bowie and The Swedish Academy

“I want eagles in my daydreams, diamonds in my eyes”

Brooklyn based Hyperallergic have published an article by Jan Åman, a respected curator, writer, columnist, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Titled David Bowie, the Nobel Prize, and Panic in Stockholm, the piece centres on the current drama around the Swedish Academy, which “has reached Shakespearian proportions, and might even flip the way we look at contemporary culture.”.

The Swedish Academy is the institution that has selected the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901. But, as Åman highlights, the recent troubles have seen the present members (who are appointed for life), reduced from 18 to 10. (Currently back up to 14.)

Here’s a heavily edited excerpt, wherein Åman mentions Bowie in the company of cultural icons that Bowie himself would have been far too humble and embarrassed to see highlighted:

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Not many people noticed it, but right after Bob Dylan became the 2016 Nobel Prize laureate, the (until recently) Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, was asked her personal opinion on Dylan. She answered, almost en-passant, that she was more of a Bowie fan, thereby slipping us a key.

Bob Dylan had for ages been mentioned as a possible Nobel Prize winner. But Bowie — that was a different twist. What I realized then and there was that the spirit of David Bowie has hovered over the way she has been staging her job ever since she became the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.

When, in 2015, Danius made her debut in the job, she descended the staircase to the Nobel Dinner in the Blue Hall as if it were a truly historical world stage. She was wearing a gown designed by Pär Engsheden in close cooperation with Danius herself, a dress well beyond normal contemporary standards. .

Her way of heading the Academy can very well be compared to David Bowie’s entry into London’s world of rock’n’roll in the 1970’s. Bowie sensed his own greatness and was able to cope with it, as many great artists do, by surpassing his context.

David Bowie was the opposite of your ordinary rock star. He invented a series of alter egos to distance himself from a market that would swallow the identities of many other, less savvy musicians. He turned himself into Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, personas that enabled him to play with pop culture’s soon-to-implode future. He handled the leap across the Atlantic to the US by turning himself into The Thin White Duke — and kept on changing even after his death (”dropped my cell-phone down below…”).

David Bowie is in this sense a descendant of Marcel Duchamp, who, through Rrose Selavy, could play with both gender and life. Marcel Duchamp too felt a need to surpass his context, the art world of Paris. When, late in life, Duchamp was asked by professor Ulf Linde why he moved to New York in 1915, he replied: “The art life in Paris had already turned into the market’s need for Braque and Picasso — and I didn’t want play on such a low level.”

The photographs taken by Carl Bengtsson of Sara Danius in Engsheden’s gowns are related to the shape-shifting images of Bowie and Duchamp: They make her into an actor. She and the Academy are decidedly not the same. They are different entities, coming from different worlds.

Compare Danius’s gestures with the demeanor of Horace Engdahl, a previous Permanent Secretary, who is rumored to be her leading opponent in the Academy turmoil. In photographs taken outside the Academy building at the height of the scandal, he is seen laughing at journalists as if he embodied and personified the entire institution. He laughs as if he were the Academy laughing.

Conincidentally, Engdahl’s writing has largely focused on German Romantic poets. The Thin White Duke and Rrose Selavy are thus pitted against the doomed poet Friedrich Hölderlin. Externalizing against internalizing. A distanced persona against a self blurred with its context.

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) lost his mental health and lived the last 36 years of his life in the house of the carpenter Ernst Zimmer, out of touch with the external world. Is this the destiny awaiting the Academy? Or will the furor be an opportunity for reinvention, for multiple roles in a rapidly expanding cultural universe?

As work of contemporary art, the Academy scandal has a potential to disrupt an old institution, as well as old models of cultural production, as they turn and face the strange — ch-ch-changes.

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Read the full thing here.

FOOTNOTE: Pictured here are David Bowie as unspecified female (but possibly a nod to his co-star Marlene Dietrich in Just A Gigolo), in the 1979 promo video for Boys Keep Swinging. And on the right is aforementioned Rrose Selavy (Marcel Duchamp), pictured by Man Ray in 1920. © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP.

#BowieForever

Bowie fan art #15 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the Brooklyn Museum has fulfilled his dream that one day they should be exhibited. We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them.

Today’s painting is based on an image taken by Steve Schapiro during the recording of David’s appearance on The Cher Show in 1975. Enjoy this and many other iconic shots in Steve Schapiro’s superb BOWIE book.

You can view all of the pieces on display at the exhibition until July 15th. Tickets and details of other Bowie-related events at the Brooklyn Museum here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday #BowieSchapiro

Iman’s anniversary message to David

On the 26th anniversary of David Bowie and Iman's official church wedding at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Florence, Italy in 1992, Iman paid a moving online tribute to David today:

“I only miss you when I’m breathing. June 6th” – IMAN

#BowieForever #EternalLove

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Our image today was created by the incredibly talented E.V. Svetova at very short notice...

“I’ve put together an image, it’s not perfect, but it’s the best I could do under the time constraints. I posed the dolls for the photoshoot and shot it over several hours last night, most of the time was spent on retouching and compositing. I was inspired by the thought that in my fantasy world they are still happy and together and having a good time.”

More of E.V.’s dolls, including many more Bowie ones, can be found here. David himself expressed his appreciation for E.V.’s work back in 2013.

#DavidAndImanForever

David Bowie is New York edition

“The solid book we wrote”

The David Bowie is New York edition marks the culmination of the spectacular V&A touring exhibition – which has now been seen by nearly 2 million people across the world. Produced in close collaboration with The David Bowie Archive, it includes an additional selection of NYC material chosen for the final destination of the tour, the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Created by the Barnbrook studio, with the original team who worked on the first edition, each element of this celebratory edition has been carefully selected, and specially printed, for the 1000 copies available. The orange highlight colour is now replaced with silver throughout, radically changing the appearance of the book.

The Brooklyn Museum display represents the final bow of the exhibition, and this final edition of the publication will provide a fitting memento.

Each of the 1000 copies of the New York edition includes:

~ A 32-page, French-folded hardbound booklet with additional New York material from the David Bowie Archive. The pages are printed on a 90gsm light-weight uncoated paper, printed 4-colour plus one metallic silver pantone colour on the outer pages, and 1 metallic silver pantone on the inner pages. The book is bound in white cloth, and embossed with 2 contrasting silver foils. The book is swiss-bound, with silver endpapers.

~ A copy of the original publication, reworked in silver rather than orange, with a silkscreen print on the cover and 2 ribbon markers. The book is bound in white cloth, and embossed with 2 contrasting silver foils. A metallic silver pantone ink is used in the printing of the book, to match the booklet.

~ A white display box, printed with a raised spot varnish finishing over a soft-touch lamination. The book and booklet are wrapped in white tissue paper inside the display box.

~ The box is wrapped in white tissue paper and placed inside a bespoke mailing carton, also designed by Barnbrook studio.

This item will be available on 15 Jun 2018, pre-order here now:

Official David Bowie Store

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