Here at EasyFrame we love anything to do with art, creativity or picture framing, so we were delighted to get a glimpse of the art collection of the late, and much missed, David Bowie. Bowie was a legendary musician, celebrated around the world for albums such as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory. He was also a cult film star, a fashion icon, a refreshingly alternative sex symbol and a serious art lover.
As a young man Bowie studied art and design at technical school. He went on to paint himself, producing work clearly influenced by expressionism and by British painters such as Frank Auerbach and Francis Bacon. He also admitted to an addiction to buying art and furniture.
After his death in January 2016, his family decided to sell a large part of the collection, as they did not have the space to keep it. Sotheby's in London exhibited the works that November and then sold them. The sale had been expected to raise about £10 million. In the event it made more than three times that.
Here are five of the best works from the collection.
'Witness', Peter Lanyon (1961)
The Cornish abstract painter Peter Lanyon is not widely known, but he was a particular favourite of Bowie's. When Tate St Ives held a Lanyon retrospective in 2010, Bowie lent works from his own collection. Lanyon took up gliding, which let him see sea, sky and land from new angles, and it changed his painting. In 'Witness' there is something in the striking black and white brushstrokes that echoes the dark, angular, chaotic side of Bowie's own work. We can see why he loved it.
'Beautiful, shattering, slashing, violent, pinky, hacking, sphincter painting', Damien Hirst (1995)
Bowie loved the work of Damien Hirst, and famously interviewed the artist in 1996. This is one of Hirst's 'spin paintings', made by pouring bright paint on to a circular canvas turning at speed on a machine. The picture is two metres wide and was one of Hirst's early works in the method. Hirst and Bowie also made a spin painting together, titled 'Beautiful, hallo, space-boy painting'.
'Interior (Mrs Mounter)', Harold Gilman (1917)
Bowie was a fan of Harold Gilman, a British painter of landscapes, interiors and portraits. Gilman painted this quiet interior two years before he died in the flu epidemic of 1919. Its light and perspective recall Edward Hopper and Johannes Vermeer.
What is most interesting is how different it is from much of the rest of the collection. Simon Hucker, an art specialist at Sotheby's, explained it by pointing to Bowie's personal connection with this kind of suburban, quintessentially British art. Bowie may have loved abstract expressionism, but he also loved Britain.
'Head of Gerda Boehm', Frank Auerbach (1965)
Of all the painters who inspired Bowie, Frank Auerbach was one of the most important, and Bowie owned several of his paintings. This one shows the artist's cousin Gerda, and has the dense, vivid, sculptural quality that so appealed to Bowie. He famously said of Auerbach's painting: 'I want to sound like that looks.'
'Air Power', Jean-Michel Basquiat (1984)
Although he died at 27, the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was hugely influential, and was praised for the way his work attacked entrenched power and racism. 'Air Power' is a large, graffiti-like painting with all the energy and colour of Bowie's own music and personality. It was valued at around £3.5 million before the sale, and sold for about twice that.
Bowie's great art hoax
Bowie supported artists tirelessly, but he also understood that the art world could be riddled with hypocrisy, self-importance and pretension. So it is no surprise that he was involved in one of the most notorious hoaxes of the 20th century, in which he helped the author William Boyd invent an entirely fictitious artist called Nat Tate.
Boyd wrote a detailed biography of Tate, telling the tragic and invented story of a penniless New York painter. Bowie's publishing company brought the book out, and he held a launch party in the New York studio of Jeff Koons. Most of the guests had no idea that Tate was not real, and some, not wanting to seem ill-informed, are said to have chimed in with memories of him and of what his work meant to them. Bowie may have been a great artist, but he was also quite the mischief-maker.
How to channel Bowie at home
Most of us do not have Bowie's income, but that does not put a collection out of reach. If his has inspired you, start your own. It has never been easier to order good prints, illustrations and photographs online.
To finish them off, order a picture frame and mount from EasyFrame. We supply frames in a wide range of colours, materials and sizes, and every one is made to order, to the exact dimensions of your artwork.
Find out more about the picture framing services offered by EasyFrame.