The unique art Collection of David Bowie
"Art
was, seriously, the only thing I'd ever wanted to own," legendary musician
David Bowie, who died on Sunday, January 10 at age 69, told the New York Times
in 1998. "It can change the way that I feel in the mornings."
He went on
to espouse his admiration for Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, and Francis
Picabia, and his appreciation of Marcel Duchamp's sense of humor.
Bowie's
well-known love of fine art, however, has led to some exaggeration about the
scope and breadth of his holdings. "Last week I was approached by a
magazine about doing an interview on my 'Surrealist and PreRaphaelite'
collection," said Bowie in 2003, as recounted by Nicholas Pegg's The
Complete David Bowie (2011). "This was news to me."
David lent
no less than three canvases to abstract expressionist Peter Lanyon's 2010
retrospective at Tate St. Ives. 21 Publishing, Bowie's art publishing press,
had previously released Peter Lanyon: At the Edge of Landscape, in 2000.