Covering more than 80,000 items, this archive explores Bowie’s creative journey as a musical innovator, cultural icon, and champion of self-expression and reinvention, from his early career in the 1960s to his death in 2016. follow the process. Gifts support the archive’s ongoing preservation, research, and research.
V&A Director Dr. Tristram Hunt said: The V&A is thrilled to become custodians of his incredible archive and to make it public. From Berlin to Tokyo to London, Bowie’s radical innovations across music, theater, film, fashion and style continue to influence his culture of design and visuals, from Janelle Monae to Lady Gaga, Tilda his Swinton, Raf his. Until Simmons, it continues to influence creative people. Our new collection center, His V&A East His Storehouse, is the ideal place to bring Bowie’s work into dialogue with his V&A collection spanning 5,000 years of art, design and performance. A big thank you to the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group for making this happen and providing us with the new sourcebook for tomorrow’s Bowie. ”
Spanning Bowie’s career, the archive includes handwritten lyrics, letters, sheet music, original costumes, fashion, photography, films, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments, album artwork and awards. increase. It also contains more intimate writings, thought processes, and unrealized projects, most of which have never been seen publicly before.
Highlights include Bowie’s groundbreaking Ziggy Stardust Ensemble (1972) designed by Freddie Buretti, Kansai Yamamoto’s flamboyant work for the Aladdin Sane Tour (1973), and the Earthling album. Includes stage costumes such as the Union Jack coat (1997) designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the cover. The archive contains handwritten lyrics for songs such as Fame (1975), “Heroes” (1977) and Ashes to Ashes (1980), as well as “Cut Up”, which was introduced to Bowie by writer William Burroughs. A writing example is also included. Additionally, the archives house a series of intimate notes from every era in Bowie’s life and career.
This archive contains a photographic collage of film stills from The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975-76), directed by Nicholas Roeg and featuring Bowie, as well as over 70,000 photographs, prints, negatives and large format transparencies he took. Also includes film, slides and contact sheets. From Terry O’Neill to Brian Duffy to Helmut Newton, some of the leading photographers of the 20th century. Among other highlights are instruments, amplifiers and other gear, including Bowie’s seminal Low (1977) and Brian Eno’s EMS synthesizer from the album Heroes and Marc Bolan’s in the late 1960s. Includes the stylophone used on Bowie’s seminal Space Oddity recordings, a gift from .