Let All the Children Boogie
David Bowie career retrospective lands at Austin art gallery with rare prints
As Austinites explore hundreds of studios on the Austin Studio Tour, the Starman peers out from behind glass. Modern Rocks, a gallery featuring rock and roll photographs and very often organizing rare collections, opens a new David Bowie exhibition on Friday, November 11, as part of the tour. The collection will display prints from across Bowie’s career, known for its many pivots and distinct phases.
The images in this collection are equally valuable to a music fan and a fashion devotee. Some of the prints in “David Bowie: Starman,” curated by gallery owner Steven Walker, are album covers, well-known but obtained directly from the original photographers as an alternative to hanging a record sleeve on the wall.
To honor the shapeshifter and get visitors involved beyond a quick peek inside, Modern Rocks has declared a costume contest. Tim Palmer, the record producer who collaborated with Bowie himself on “Tin Machine” (the eponymous debut for the band Bowie founded and fronted in 1988), will host and judge the contest. His pick will determine which impersonator or vision expander brings home a framed Aladdin Sane print. The runner up will take home a copy of David Bowie Icon, a comprehensive photography book documenting the artist’s entire career.
Contest onlookers and tour visitors are invited for themed cocktails by distillery consultant Mark Shilling. The exhibition can be viewed through the end of 2022, when it will relocate to the David Bowie World Fan Convention in New York City.
Bowie was always interesting to look at, to put it mildly. As a teenager, he repped long hair and an otherwise sharp presentation in a TV interview with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men. He went through a few iconic mullets, an outward fascination with fascist design elements, and a whole lot of rouge.
Other shots from cover sessions appear alongside the more famous images in the exhibition, including limited edition, signed prints from the cover shoot for “Diamond Dogs” by Terry O’Neill (Bowie dressed foppishly, yet working class); “Pin-Ups” by Justin De Villeneuve (Bowie with culture-shifting model Twiggy); and “Heroes” by Masayoshi Sukita (Bowie incredibly coiffed and austerely incredulous). Also included are Brian Duffy’s “Aladdin Sane” and “Scary Monsters” shoots — the former so iconic it became the visual shorthand for anything Bowie — plus early prints from Alec Byrne, Brian Aris, Kevin Cummins, Jake Chessum, Markus Klinko, and more.
The opening reception for “David Bowie: Starman” takes place on November 11, from 7-10 pm. RSVP on Eventbrite. More information about the Austin Studio Tour, including an interactive map, is available at austinstudiotour.org.
