This was the third and last lecture of the term. It was about David Bowie which was very interesting and fun.
Biography:
David Bowie was a rock star born in England on the 8th of January 1947 as David Robert Jones. The interest in music run in the family as Bowie was influenced by his older brother Terry who exposed Bowie to the world of music. Bowie started playing the saxophone since a really young age. However, his brother Terry had mental issues which forced him to move to an institution, leaving Bowie alone and scarred. Terry committed suicide in a later stage which influenced the song 'Jump they say'.
Bowie got accepted in Bromley Technical high school where he spent some time studying. After graduating at the age of 16, he continued pursuing his passion in music by arranging to play with other bands. Simultaneously, he also leaded his own band known as 'Davy Jones and the lower thirds'. However, since there was an artist with a similar name called 'Davy Jones of the Monkees', David decided to change his last name to Bowie.
After working with the band, he decided to go solo and produce his own album which did not succeed, causing him to quit the music industry for a short period of time.
He married his wife, Angela Barnett in 1971, but ended up getting divorced in 1980.
When Bowie returned back to his music, he produced a single called 'Space Oddity'. This was his first hit single as it was used for the coverage of the Apollo 11 landing. This exploded his career as it was the song that gained him a lot of recognition.
Bowie announced that he was gay and he introduced his made up character, Ziggy Stardust to the pop world.
In 2004, Bowie suffered a major health scare as he had a heart attack while performing on stage in Germany. His final album, Blackstar, was released in 2016 on his birthday. On January 10th 2016, Bowie died after battling a 18 month battle with cancer. Bowie had an endless love for the arts. Not only did he produce music, act, and paint but he also owned a collection of paintings that sold for 33 million pounds after his death.
After looking at his biography, I also wanted to comment on some works he created. These are some of the artworks we discussed in class.
The element that stands out to me the most in this painting are the colours included. Bowie adds some bright orange colours that bring the painting to life and create contrast in the dull surroundings. He encompasses complementary colours, yellow-purple, orange-blue, red-green which shows that he is aware of the good colour matches.
His use of white is located only on the body to highlight and bring forward some elements for a more 3D finish. The distortion of human body elements is an on-going theme seen in most of his paintings.
I like how Bowie experiments with his colour palettes and tries out new things. What stands out to me in this painting are the variations in the line thickness. He uses abstract motion and distorts characteristics to make him look unrealistic. I like how elements such as the apple of the cheeks are intensified to stand out and show the structure of his face. I also like how the hands are completely disproportional as it follows his expressionism and abstract theme. Unlike the other paintings I looked at, this one has a very plain and simple background which contrasts with the outline.
Additionally, I like how each piece of art has a deeper meaning behind it. This pose is a signature pose which is used in his album 'heroes'. It is a very unique and easily identifiable pose by Bowie.
As mentioned in the biography, Bowie was interested in music, art and theatre. Therefore, through this painting, he combines his love for drawings, his love for theatre by posing and his art for music by recreating his album cover.
The simplicity of this artwork is what makes it stand out to me. The focal point is solely Bowie as he demands your attention and captures you eye. This is a painting of his that I really like.
I particularly like this work of art because it encompasses different styles and textures. It looks like 3 different people used 3 different styles into one piece of art. I like the contrast created in the top part of the painting as it is really dark and dull. This contrasts the middle part which encompasses a fun and playful approach with colours. This reminds me of a kids drawing where they randomly scribble coloured lines to fill in the area. Even though the head looks more like a male, the body resembles a female. This also shows the contrast in the context he creates and makes the viewer feel like as though he is watching 3 different people draw 3 different parts.
The monochromatic and dark approaches on the top and bottom contrast with the bright pink layer in the middle.
Even though Bowie is known for abstract and impressionist paintings, this series is more realistic. The first painting is probably my favourite one. It depicts a person looking sideways with fairly even face proportions. I like how he encompasses a blue colour for the eyebrow instead of adding individual hair. This shows that he is being consistent and tries to avoid a lot of detail by just shading them in. I find this piece to be very expressive as it evokes a sense of mystery, what is he looking at. He has a calm expression on his face which is further enhanced using calm pastel colours which set a very relaxing tone. He uses slightly darker colours for dimension but keeps the background list too. Additionally, it looks like this head is floating which makes it very magical and unrealistic.
In the second painting, it evokes an opposite approach to what the first one does. It looks like the person is feeling uncomfortable which is further enhanced with the darker colour background. The person looks confused and lost. One of the eyes looks as though it is deteriorating which shows that the state of this person may not be the best.
References:
A&E Television networks (2020) David Bowie Biography. Available at: https://www.biography.com/musician/david-bowie [Accessed: 12/03/21]
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