‘David Bowie is’ exhibit in Barcelona. Photo via David Bowis IS BCN
by Craig Hubert | Brownstoner
The Brooklyn Museum posted a bright orange square to all of their social media accounts Tuesday, teasing a big announcement they would be making the following day.
As many speculated, the cryptic message was a sign that “David Bowie is,” the vast international touring-exhibition about the famed glam-rock singer, who passed away in January 2016, would be coming to the museum in March, 2018.
Consisting of nearly 400 items from the singer’s career, including original costumes, hand-written lyrics, and — most infamously — the rock star’s personal cocaine spoon, the exhibition has been a huge success since its opening at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in 2013. It has since traveled to museums all over the world, including Brazil, Tokyo, and Australia.
“Bowie himself left England in 1974 to eventually settle in America, so we could not be more delighted that the final leg of the tour brings the show back to New York, where Bowie made his home,” said the show’s curator, Victoria Broackes, in a press release.
Prior to the exhibition’s arrival in Brooklyn, the only other stop in the United States was the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, in 2014.
Aside from his own extensive archive of materials from his music career, Bowie was also a serious art collector. Many of the pieces from his collection, including works from painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and Italian designers the Memphis Group, were auctioned off by Sotheby’s in November 2016. (Alas, they will not be included in the show.)
Brooklyn Museum is known for untraditional shows, which often have a local connection. Although this is not the museum’s first brush with Bowie (he controversially helped fund and loaned some works for the “Sensation” exhibition in 1999), the subject isn’t particularly Brooklyn related, although Bowie did record a music video for his 2013 track “Valentine’s Day” on the first floor of Red Hook’s abandoned grain terminal, the iconic hulk at the mouth of the Gowanus Canal.
Expect enormous lines, loud music and lots of glitter.