BOUNTY OF BOWIE
80,000 items from rock star to go on display in London
MLONDON — ore than 80,000 items belonging to British rock star David Bowie, including costumes, handwritten notes, sheet music and art, will go on display in a London museum starting in 2025, creating a massive archive of the late musician’s six-decade career.
The colorful trove of items will trace “Bowie’s creative processes as a musical innovator, cultural icon and advocate for self-expression,” the Victoria & Albert Museum said in a statement Thursday.
It also announced the creation of an new institute, “The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts,” which will be part of the museum’s new site in east London, where the vast collection will be housed. It follows a popular 2013 exhibition celebrating Bowie’s life at the same museum and an international tour that drew 2 million people around the world.
“The V&A is thrilled to become custodians of his incredible archive, and to be able to open it up for the public,” said the museum’s director, Tristram Hunt. “Bowie’s radical innovations across music, theatre, film, fashion and style — from Berlin to Tokyo to London — continue to influence design and visual culture.”
Bowie, known for his flamboyant innovation in music, fashion and movies, died in 2016 of liver cancer at age 69.
He described himself as a “tasteful thief” for appropriating from glam rock, soul, disco, punk rock and haute couture. He was born David Robert Jones in 1947 and grew up in Brixton, a working-class south London neighborhood. But he was better known for a series of glamorous, androgynous alter egos, including Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. He went on to pen hit songs, notably “Changes,” and “Starman,” and he appeared in the 1976 movie, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
“I used to wonder about my eccentricities, my wanting to explore and put myself in dangerous situations,” he told Esquire magazine in 1993. “The reason I was getting away with it was that I was an artist, so people never knew I was totally
bonkers.”
Shortly before his death, Bowie released a studio album, “Blackstar,” backed by a small jazz group and hailed as boldly experimental.
Highlights of the collection at the V&A East Storehouse site will include his stage costumes, such as his breakthrough Ziggy Stardust ensembles designed by Freddie Burretti in 1972 and a Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for his “Earthling” album cover in 1997.
Also on display will be “a series of intimate notebooks,” as well as writings that reveal Bowie’s thought process and unrealized projects, “the majority of which have never been seen in public before,” the museum said.
Handwritten lyrics for songs including “Fame” and “Heroes.” Personal photography, album artwork and awards will also make up the collection.
His fans online hailed the announcement of the museum’s exhibition.
“He was a national treasure and an icon that influenced the world with his music, fashion and creativity. Now, future generations get to fully appreciate his unique genius,” one fan exulted on Twitter. “Planning to be first in the queue in 2025,” wrote another.
David Bowie’s estate also welcomed the announcement. “With David’s life’s work becoming part of the UK’s national collections, he takes his rightful place amongst many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses,” the estate said in a statement. “We’re so pleased to be working closely with the V&A to continue to commemorate David’s enduring cultural influence.”
The archive will also feature some of his instruments and stage props, including producer Brian Eno’s EMS synthesizer and a stylophone given by musician Marc Bolan in the late 1960s and used on Bowie’s “Space Oddity” recording.