David Bowie was an influential musician, actor, and icon, and to me, a symbol of the Space Age era. With his ‘Space Oddity,’ which he performed and released as a music single in July 1969, telling the fictional story of Major Tom, an astronaut who casually slips the bonds of the world to journey beyond the stars, Bowie came to capture the imagination of that generation fascinated space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. When I have recently read that Sotheby’s will be selling the collection of the late musician in November, I was eager to discover a side of Bowie which has never been revealed before, his private world. The catalogue “Bowie/Collector,” of the three-part sale comprising around 400 items from his private collection reveals his taste in art, design, and living. We learn that he was fascinated with Outsider Art, Surrealism, and Contemporary African art, but we also learn that he was a lover of Italian radical design. The collection comprises of icons of Italian design of the 80s and particularly the work of Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis group, which he founded in 1981 in Milan. When the Victoria and Albert Museum in London opened the retrospective of the extraordinary career of Bowie, showcasing his handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, and set designs, it did not contain any hint on this aspect of Bowie’s personality, and here are a couple of examples that illustrated the private life of the Space-Age icon.
Ettore Sottsass, ‘Ashoka’ Lamp, 1981
Peter Shire, ‘Big Sur’ Sofa, 1986
Ettore Sottsass, Casablanca Sideboard, 1981
Ettore Sottsass, ‘Ivory” Table, 1985
Marcel Duchamp, A Bruit Secret, 1964
