“Hanging by the cross and nail…”
Hope the headline wasn’t too misleading, but if you haven’t yet attended Sotheby’s Bowie/Collector London highlights preview exhibition, you have until next Tuesday, August 9th, to get to it.
Of course, the David Jones Crucifixion we’re referencing isn’t anything Bowie himself created, but rather just one of the pieces from his art collection going under the hammer at Sotheby’s in November.
You can see the picture in the background behind Gavin Evans’ iconic shot of Bowie and here’s the accompanying caption…
David Jones (1895-1974)
CRUCIFIXION
pencil and watercolour
23.5 by 16.5cm.; 9¼ by 6½in.
Executed circa 1922.
£5,000-7,000
With the same name and the same South London origins as David Bowie, David Jones similarly explored the relationship between art and language. Author of the epic war poem In Parenthesis 1937, admired by the likes of W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliot, Jones was invalided out of military service after being shot at the Battle of the Somme. Although a master of many media, Jones is especially admired as a watercolourist and printmaker. A troubled and reclusive character, Jones created Crucifixion one year after his conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Coincidentally, David Jones died in 1974, the same year that Chris Burden’s own ‘crucifixion’ on a Volkswagen Beetle was unveiled. As we mentioned yesterday, the piece entitled ‘Trans-Fixed’ was referenced in the Bowie song, Joe The Lion.
Anyway, here’s the Bowie/Collector highlights preview exhibition and auction schedule:
Preview World Tour:
London: 20 July-9 August
Los Angeles: 20-21 September
New York: 26-29 September
Hong Kong: 12-15 October
The Exhibition:
Bowie/Collector: 1–10 November, Sotheby’s New Bond Street London
The Auctions:
Part I: Modern & Contemporary Art, Evening Auction, 10 November
Part II: Modern & Contemporary Art, Day Auction, 11 November
Part III: Post-Modernist Design: Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group, 11 November
If you can’t attend any of the above, you can glean lots of information regarding the collection here.
#BowieCollector #BowieArt