From Major Tom to Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, the many faces and inspirations of David Bowie have found a permanent home in London.
England’s Victoria & Albert Museum announced Thursday that it has acquired Bowie’s archive of more than 80,000 items as a gift from the late musician’s estate. A collection of costumes, musical instruments, letters, lyrics, photographs and more will be opened to the public in a new art center dedicated to the chameleon pop icon.
The David Bowie Center for Performing Arts Studies is set to open in 2025 as part of the V&A East Storehouse, a branch of Britain’s national art, design and performance museum built in east London’s Olympic Park.
The V&A said the center would allow fans and researchers to gain an insight into the creative process of Bowie, who died in 2016 aged 69.
Kate Bailey, the museum’s senior curator of theater and performance, said the archive was an “extraordinary” record of a creator whose “life is art.”
“Bowie was a polymath, he was diverse. He was inspired by all genres and disciplines,” he said. “He’s an artist who really works in 360 – drawing from literature, but also drawing from art history… (and) the places he’s been.”
The musician – born in an empty old David Jones on the outskirts of London in 1947 – reinvented himself restlessly, creating and shedding personas while moving through musical styles from folk-rock to glam to soul to electronica.
He created a series of larger-than-life stage characters, mining influences ranging from German Expressionist cinema to Japanese Kabuki theater. Later he has influenced musicians, filmmakers, fashion designers and advertisers.
Some of the items in the archive are part of “David Bowie Is,” a multimedia exhibition that toured the world after a sell-out at the V&A in London in 2013.
Some great items, such as the colorful quilted jumpsuit designed by Freddie Burretti for Bowie’s alien rock star creation Ziggy Stardust, Kansai Yamamoto’s futuristic creation for the Aladdin Sane tour in 1973 or the Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the Album cover “Earthling” in 1997.
Others are more personal, including letters, handwritten lyrics to songs including the song “Heroes,” and notebooks that Bowie kept throughout his life. The archive also contains over 70,000 photographs, slides and drawings.
The museum secured the archive from the Bowie estate and also received a 10 million pound ($12 million) donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group to house and exhibit it at the V&A East, part of the new cultural and technological quarter rising on the London 2012 Olympic Site. .
The David Bowie Estate said that “with David’s life’s work becoming part of the UK’s national collection, he takes his rightful place among other cultural icons and artistic geniuses.”
V&A director Tristram Hunt called Bowie “one of the greatest musicians and performers of all time.”
“Bowie’s radical innovations in music, theatre, film, fashion and style – from Berlin to Tokyo to London – continue to influence design and visual culture and inspire creatives from Janelle Monáe to Lady Gaga to Tilda Swinton and Raf Simons,” he said.
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