Article: BowieArt: I want to sound like that looks
Abstract
David Jones never attended art-school, although his alter ego gave the impression he had. Instead, as David Bowie, he drew on art-school philosophies by proxy, through friends, collaborators, the artists he admired, and the books he read. He took in the ethos of British postwar art-schools, their spirit of experimentation, interdisciplinarity, and the blurred boundaries between high and low culture, and applied these ideas to his own creative practice.
This article was designed around a ten-track Bowie playlist - which offered a way to explore his dialogue with the art world, tracing influences, collaborations, and conceptual borrowings. Each selection considers both the song and its accompanying album, highlighting their connections to visual art and wider artistic movements. In doing so, we can map Bowie’s shifting position as a consumer and creator of art culture.
Many of these artistic milestones and partnerships are now part of Bowie folklore, familiar even to casual fans. Nevertheless, bringing them together helps to underscore the breadth of his curiosity and the diversity of his creative output.