David Bowie, 50 years of ‘Aladdin Sane’: the Victoria & Albert Museum in London buys his legacy and Madrid opens an exhibition

‘Aladdin Sane’ turns half a century. A celebration that coincides with the purchase of the immense archive of Bowie by the Museum of Arts, London. In addition, we will see a large photographic exhibition in the capital at the COAM Space: Bowie, through the camera of Brian Duffy, creator of the iconic portrait of the musician with the lightning bolt on his face. Essential appointment. Top photo credit: V&A Museum.

Seven years after David Bowie’s death, the V&A Museum in London has acquired his archive of more than 80,000 pieces. A valuable material of manuscripts, letters, costumes, thousands of portraits, videos, films and part of his scenery. Like the futuristic striped jumpsuit from Aladdin Sane Tourdesigned by Kansai Yamamoto and portrayed by Masayoshi Sukita.

There are also instruments, such as Brian Eno’s EMS synthesizer that plays on Low y Heroes and a stylophone, a gift from Marc Bolan that was used for the original recording of Space Oddity. The collection will be open to the public in 2025 at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) David Bowie Center for Fine Arts. The purchase has been made possible thanks to the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group, who have donated 10 million pounds (11.25 million euros).

Through Duffy’s gaze

This mega project coincides with the photographic exhibition of Bowie and Brian Duffy, creator of the immortal portrait of the musician with the red and blue lightning bolt on his face. We will see it in Madrid, at the Espacio COAM (Hortaleza, 63) on March 15, the date of the premiere of the retrospective Bowie taken by Duffy. A journey through the golden years of the musician through the lens of the portrait painter.

The exhibition takes us back to five photographic sessions of this artistic duo between 1972 and 1980. The years in which the White Duke created Ziggy y Aladdin Sane, the legendary work that is half a century old. Essential in his discography, just like The Jean Genie.

50 years of music and 25 albums

How is a life of music synthesized in a few lines? Let’s go to the nougat. Space Oddity (1969), psychedelia inspired by Kubrick and 2001: a space odyssey. Insurmountable year: Apollo 11 and the man reaches the Moon. A manna for pop culture. From this song came the great Major Tom, who would later have a very bad life. Other basic: Hunky Dorysynthesis of glam, with a very mature Bowie (24 years old), who carried inside Life on Mars?, catalytic and dreamlike; and the immortal Changes. Other essential: The rise and the fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars. Creative peak through his most definitive alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, a character built to dramatize his staging. Alien, rock star, messianic and omnisexual, Ziggy was born and died fast, but he was everything. A broadcast in Top of the Pops (BBC) de Starman it turned the British record market upside down and took it by storm. Literal. In 1973 Bowie had three albums in the Top 15. Attention Soul Love, with that voice that grows and fades at the same time. Perhaps the best Bowie of so many that he was.

His Berlin stage and the trilogy (1977) arrived. Progressive rock, his friend Brian Eno and Heroes, turned into a cult anthem. He reinvented himself at Tim Machine and went through electronics. Hits? The man who sold the world, Sound and Vision, Rebel Rebel, Ashes to Ashes, Oh! You Pretty Thing, Boys keep swinging, Modern Love, Blue Jeans, Absolute Beginners and so many others.

Chameleonic and surreal, there were many Bowies. Each of them traveled a different path because the musician always lived in transmutation. He was one of the most influential figures and generator of a 360º creative universe, a reference in fashion, trends, design, plastic arts, theatre, cinema and advertising.