The long-lost K West sign in all its magical luminescence: the restored emblem of the Ziggy Stardust album sleeve is on display at MPAG, London. Captured in its mystic rays (above), writer Alex Hopkins of the quarterly Lifestyle magazine beigeuk.com with the always-on Paul Burston of Time Out London. (Nokia snap © Shapersofthe80s)
❚ AFTER ZIGGY’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY HULLABALOO comes a unique selling exhibition of Bowie graphic art and memorabilia from his golden years 1969–1981. On display this week in London for the first time in 30 years is the original K. West sign that featured in Brian Ward’s covershot for Bowie’s springboard 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The record sleeve itself has long been as iconic a London image as Abbey Road’s zebra crossing. At last, the illuminated sign from 23 Heddon Street has been rescued by a music industry veteran and restored, and is on show at the Movie Poster Art Gallery, run by 80s Mud Club regular, Tim Maddison. He revealed to Shapersofthe80s that it may be for sale “at the right price”.
The exhibition highlights celebrated images created for Bowie by talents such as Brian Duffy, Edward Bell, Masayoshi Sukita, Guy Peellaert, Steve Shapiro and Eric Stephen Jacobs. Original posters and large-format promotional displays on Bowie in the 70s are hard to come by, let alone buy, so this show is a treat. At the preview, a 3-ft wide original RCA in-store display for Diamond Dogs was snapped up at £1,250. A fab Scary Monsters in-store stand was still for sale today at £950.
Bowie graphics: five of the images for sale this week
➢ David Bowie: Sound and Vision at the The Movie Poster Art Gallery, London (Nov 17–Dec 1)
➢ View more classic Bowie images for sale this week
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
–
A MORE PAINTERLY TAKE ON BOWIE
❚ KNOWN AS THE MAN WHO changed the colour of Bowie’s left eye, painter George Underwood is showing his recently discovered 1975 oil painting of the Hunky Dory cover shoot [below] in London next month. He stumbled upon the 32 x 38-inch original while sorting through some old artworks and now it’s on sale for £16,000.
Bowie’s schoolfriend and former musician, Underwood as a painter adopted an imaginative style that refers to Bosch, Bruegel and mannerism. He is among an eclectic mix of ten contemporary artists selling direct through The Art for Art’s Sake Show at The Gallery in Cork Street next month. Rather more affordable Bowie mementoes are his limited edition giclée prints which include Width of a Circle (1969, £500), seen on the back cover of the UK David Bowie LP on Philips… Stardust Memories (1972, £350), a Ziggy era painting that was reproduced as a poster… The Man Who Fell to Earth (1975, £650), seen on the cover of the Pan Books film tie-in.
Rediscovered: George Underwood’s 1975 painting of the Hunky Dory cover
➢ The Art for Art’s Sake Show: the New Kids on the Block (Dec 3–8)
➢ At Underwood’s own online gallery, collectable enamel brooches of Ziggy Stardust cartoons
FRONT PAGE
❚ TOMORROW SEES ANOTHER launch party, this time at 1980’s breakaway New Romantics nightspot St Moritz in Soho to celebrate publication of the second (unlimited) edition of the 320-page coffee-table photobook that chronicles the creation of 80s clubbing through Graham Smith’s eye-witness photography, and racy commentary from Wag club host Chris Sullivan. Read the full background to the characters behind the book We Can Be Heroes at Shapersofthe80s. On sale for £35 from its publisher Unbound, or discounted to £25.50 at Amazon (an even cheaper pre-publication offer has finished).
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 