40 years ago this year saw the release of an album
and the meteoric rise of a performer who was to overturn the landscape
of pop culture more than any artist since the Beatles.
David Bowie and ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’
landed like a bolt of lightning on the increasingly grim landscape of
70s Britain. The music’s stripped down trash aesthetic, fired by Mick
Ronson’s screaming guitar, was one of Punk’s most influential seeds,
but it was Bowie himself, a startling vision of near-alien glamour and
sexual ambiguity, who electrified a generation of teenagers who would
go on to change pop music and culture forever. The number of
influential artists over subsequent decades who have name checked Bowie
and this seminal album as the spur for their own creative inspiration
is truly remarkable.
As the centerpiece of the exhibition, the gallery is proud to unveil publically for the first time in 30 years the original Heddon Street K. West sign from the album’s front cover – probably the single most iconic cover location in British rock history, along with the Abbey Road zebra crossing.”
Rescued by a music industry veteran and finally restored, this is
the original sign face seen on the album cover’s famous Brian Ward
photograph, with Bowie standing underneath, a pose recreated in the
original location by countless fans.
From Ziggy up to the beginning of the 80s, Bowie embarked on an
unprecedented, at times dangerous, rollercoaster of creative renewal
and reinvention. From London, to Los Angeles and Berlin, each musical
sidestep was accompanied by an equally startling visual transformation,
a personification of the musical and cultural ideas firing Bowie’s
restless creative changes.
This hugely influential visual and stylistic presentation carried
over to his record sleeves and posters. As with his astute selection of
musical collaborators, Bowie had a knack of working with highly
talented design collaborators; the exhibition highlights the world
famous images Brian Duffy, Edward Bell, Masayoshi Sukita, Guy Peellaert, Steve Shapiro, Eric Stephen Jacobs and others created for Bowie.
In common with a surprising number of major artists from the 70s,
original posters and promo material on Bowie are hard to come by, and
the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to purchase classic vintage
posters, and more, from his greatest period. To view all of the posters
available to buy at the exhibition visit: www.rock-explosion.com/bowie1.html
