{"id":8827,"date":"2021-05-21T23:37:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T20:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/?p=8827"},"modified":"2021-05-21T23:37:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T20:37:45","slug":"david-bowie-the-painter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/david-bowie-the-painter\/","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie The Painter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David
Credit (Rex Features (1995). David Bowie at the Gallery in Cork Street, London in 1995 for \u201cNew Afro\/Pagan and Work: 1975-1995\u201d.\u00a0 Associated Press [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/01\/15\/arts\/design\/painting-offered-a-different-palette-for-david-bowies-talents.html<\/a> )<\/figcaption><\/figure>The iconic rock singer David Bowie is known for his musical career and his acting in some films. However, his talents were not only limited with singing or acting but also painting. His paintings were said to be influenced by artists such as Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Francis Bacon, Francis Picabia (Klimas, 2016). He was also a fan of the Die Br\u00fccke group that was a German expressionist group of the early 1900s (Rutten, 2021). Although, he kept his talent at painting more privately for a while, David Bowie’s paintings were introduced to the public eye in his first exposition which was called “New Afro\/Pagan and Work: 1975-1995” <\/em>at The Gallery in London in 1995 (Rutten, 2021). In the article, some of the paintings that had been drawn by David Bowie and what was an inspiration to him will be shown.<\/p>\n
\"David
Credit (Mazur, K. (1977). David Bowie with his painting Child in Berlin [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/www.dailyartmagazine.com\/david-bowie-from-popstar-to-neo-expressionist-painter\/ <\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Subjects and stories of his paintings were always close to him and taken by some parts of his life (Rutten, 2021). For instance, in spring 1976, Iggy Pop and he left America and they moved to an apartment in Berlin together (VeryPrivateGallery, 2016). Berlin gave him opportunities and inspiration to start a new life (VeryPrivateGallery, 2016). To exemplify, he was inspired by his apartment and painted his Child in Berlin <\/em>(Rutten, 2021). In the painting, the boy does not look that happy, he might be about to have a tooth pulled because it was claimed that on the 3rd floor of the apartment that he shared with Iggy pop, there was a dentist (Rutten, 2021). His painting style was neo-expressionism. Besides this, it was known that David Bowie was suffering from drug use at that time. Thus, the disturbing and haunted images may not be surprising and they can be seen in his self-portrait paintings (Rutten, 2021). In addition to this, Bowie was influenced by neo-expressionists and this style can be seen as well on his paintings as he used the same language of intimate emotions as the German neo-expressionists did (Rutten, 2021).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1996). Self-Portrait [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a> )<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"david-bowie-paintings-art-14\"
Credit (David Bowie (1995). Self-Portrait [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

While recording his Heroes album in Berlin, the cover of the album was designed by Masayoshi Sukito who took inspiration from Erich Heckel\u2019s 1917 painting called Roquairol <\/em>for the cover (Rutten, 2021). Bowie also drew a self-portrait similar to his Heroes’ album cover which shows some resemblance to the German expressionists in terms of its techniques (Rutten, 2021).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1978). Self-portrait inspired by the cover of the Heroes album (Victoria and Albert Museum)[Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"\"
Credit (Masayoshi Sukito, David Bowie\u2019s Heroes album cover (1977) photo RCA. Discogs. [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/www.dailyartmagazine.com\/david-bowie-from-popstar-to-neo-expressionist-painter\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Furthermore, he portrayed some of his close friends such as the rock star Iggy Pop and pianist Mike Garson (Rutten, 2021). Iggy Pop and he especially were close friends. During the time they had shared the apartment in Berlin, Bowie included Iggy Pop in some of his paintings as James Osterberg.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1978). Berlin landscape with JO (Portrait of Iggy Pop (James Osterberg) [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1978). Portrait of JO (James Osterberg)[Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On top of that, in 1995 he took a trip to South Africa with his wife (Rutten, 2021). He was fascinated by a story called white ancestor which locals believed in (Rutten, 2021). An exploration of Bowie\u2019s thoughts on the white ancestor, and the artist\u2019s quote on the story was:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1995 Iman and I took our first trip to South Africa. One of the prevailing stories handed down is that when the first tribes saw the white man they presumed they were being visited by their ancestors, as in their mythology the ancestors appear as a ghost-like white form.\u201d (VeryPrivateGallery,2016).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Therefore, this story influenced him in a way and inspired him to paint the series called Ancestors <\/em>(Rutten, 2021). He still used the expressive painting style and he combined his expressive style with African items such as animal skin patterns (Rutten, 2021).<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1978) Ancestor II, private collection [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"david-bowie-paintings-art-5\"<\/a>
Credit (David Bowie (1978). Ancestor [Photograph]. Available at https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

To conclude, it can be understood that David Bowie was an absolute creative genius and he showed his creative side in multiple areas of art. He mostly influenced by neo-expressionism to which he reflected in his paintings. His painter side definitely blows one away by how someone can be that creative. He will always be remembered for his contributions not only as a musician or an actor but also a painter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WORK CITED<\/p>\n

Rutten, M. (2021). “David Bowie, from Popstar to Neo-expressionist Painter” Daily Art Magazine. <\/em>Available at<\/p>\n

\n
\n
https:\/\/www.dailyartmagazine.com\/david-bowie-from-popstar-to-neo-expressionist-painter\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

VeryPrivateGallery (2016). “David Bowie Paintings” VeryPrivateGallery<\/em>. Available at<\/p>\n

https:\/\/veryprivategallery.com\/david-bowie-paintings\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Klimas, M. (2016). “These Paintings By David Bowie Show His Other Artist Side” DeMilked. <\/em>Available at<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.demilked.com\/david-bowie-paintings-art\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The iconic rock singer David Bowie is known for his musical career and his acting in some films. However, his talents were not only limited with singing or acting but also painting. His paintings were said to be influenced by artists such as Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Francis Bacon, Francis Picabia (Klimas, 2016). He was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":8976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,1],"tags":[1282,1801,22,21,1802,1803],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-culture","category-general","tag-david-bowie","tag-iggy-pop","tag-painter","tag-painting","tag-rock-musicians","tag-self-portrait"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8827"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8827\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8827"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mozartcultures.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}