2024 in Review: Visions of Bowie— the Artist as Art
Although I have been writing this blog since 2018, 2024 was the first year of the weekly interview segment. This, for me, has been one of the most enriching and fascinating aspects of my ongoing project. I’ve had the chance to talk with some of Bowie’s collaborators, musicians, authors, concert promoters and others. In today’s post, I’m going to highlight some of the visual artists who I had the opportunity to interview over the past year.
I actually know very little about music. I don’t play an instrument, have a lousy singing voice and know next to nothing about music theory. That said, I know slightly more about visual art. One of my regrets as an adult is that I did not pursue art more after leaving high school. That said, I know enough to be dangerous (so to speak). I grew up near museums and, in fact, Albany’s Empire State Plaza, where I work in my day job is home to a stunningly impressive collection of modern art. All this gives me just enough background to truly appreciate the work of Sara Captain, Con Chrisoulis, Mark Wardel, and Arjan van Gent. While all four do not limit their subject matter to Bowie, I was drawn to them because of their beautiful depictions of Bowie.
In their hands, Bowie, the artist becomes art. One thing that strikes me is that, while Bowie certainly put care into his visual presentation, and in fact was himself a painter, he is obviously primarily known for his music. So Sara, Con, Mark and Arjan leverage their appreciation for an artist primarily known for one method of expression to demonstrate their own skills and creative vision using a different method altogether.
I’m also struck that while each possesses the highest of skills, their styles are about as different as can be. I’m not going to attempt to describe what I mean— see for yourself with the images I’m embedding in this post, but their talents are on the same level but their styles are distinct.
I’ll mention two others who I interviewed in 2024: David Currie and Lisa Perrott. I mainly talked with them about their books, in the first case, The Grand Illusion of David Bowie, and in the second, David Bowie and the Art of Music Video. David’s photography was central to his book, though his book also features the art of others and substantial text. The interview was not centered around David’s photography, but his photography is excellent. In the case of Lisa, I actually didn’t realize that she painted the cover image of her book before I was interviewing her. It isn’t a visual art book, but if her cover painting is an indication, I’d surely want to see more from her, too.
Below, find links the 2024 interviews with the aforementioned artists. Click on their bolded names to link to the interviews:
