Organized with unprecedented access to David Bowie’s personal archive, this exhibition explores the creative process of an artist whose sustained reinventions, innovative collaborations, and bold characterizations revolutionized the way we see music, inspiring people to shape their own identities while challenging social traditions. David Bowie is has been touring globally for the past five years and is taking its final bow at the Brooklyn Museum (from 2nd March – 15th July 2018), providing an opportunity to view this one-of-a-kind material.
David Bowie is presents approximately 400 objects drawn primarily from the David Bowie Archive, including the artist’s original costumes, handwritten lyric sheets from famous songs, original album art, photographs, and videos, all tracing Bowie’s creative process from his teenage years in England through his last twenty years, when he resided in New York City. The archive is presented within an immersive, multimedia installation that includes continuous audio along with projected animation and video.
Highlights of the exhibition include more than 60 custom-made performance costumes, including six designed by Freddie Burretti for Ziggy Stardust / 1980 Floor Show and seven designed by Kansai Yamamoto for Aladdin Sane. There are 85 handwritten lyric sheets, including those from “Fame” and “Fashion”; drawings, including a sketch for the Young Americans album cover; and oil paintings, including two of musician Iggy Pop, all by Bowie.
There are also more than 40 pioneering music videos, television clips, and filmed roles as well as a multimedia presentation of international tour footage with rare scenes from the legendary Diamond Dogs tour, filmed in Philadelphia. A custom audio mix made up of snippets of Bowie’s songs—produced by longtime collaborator Tony Visconti—is also featured.
David Bowie is is organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The exhibition is touring internationally.
These are the previous museums that David Bowie is has been exhibited in:
Original exhibition: Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London from 23 Mar – 11 Aug 2013
Art Gallery Ontario, Toronto, Canada, from 25 Sept – 19 Nov 2013
Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo, Brasil, from 31 Jan – 20 April 2014
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany, from 20 May – 24 Aug, 2014
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA from 23 Sept 2014 – 4 Jan 2015
Philharmonie de Paris/ Cité de la Musique, Paris, France from 2 March – 31 May 2015
Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne, Australia from 16 July – 1 Nov 2015
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands from 11 Dec 2015 – 10th April 2016
Warehouse TERRADA G1 Building, Tokyo, Japan from 8 Jan – 9 April 2017
Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo), Bologna, Italy, from 14 July – 13 Nov2016
Museu del Disseny, Barcelona, Spain, from 25 May 2017 – 15th Oct 2017
Brooklyn Museum, New York City, USA, from 2 March – 15 July 2018