David Bowie - DAVID BOWIE IS Groninger Museum

David Bowie. Groningen Museum exhibition poster (81 x 59 cm) in the Groninger Museum has been the successful exhibition David Bowie from 11 December 2015 under the curation of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.



The exhibition is the first international overview of David Bowie, one of the most groundbreaking and influential artists of this time. More than 300 objects from his archive, including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, designs of, for example, albums, and rare material from the past 50 years have been brought together for the first time. The exhibition travels next to it
Groninger Museum, to Melbourne, Cité de la Musique, Paris, Chicago, USA Berlin, Germany, Sao Paulo, Brasil, and Toronto, Canada,
The museum posted various photos of empty lists in the city center. The Billboard posters from Bowie were so popular in Groningen that the Abri's quickly showed an empty appearance.

ABOUT THE COVER SHOOT
The cover of David Bowie’s 1973 album Aladdin Sane is regarded as a creative masterpiece. It is surrounded by myth and contrasting stories, even from those who were directly involved in its creation. At the time it was the most expensive album cover ever produced – a stunning original image which went through a dye transfer process, extensive airbrushing and plates that were made up in Switzerland. The shoot took place on a Saturday in January 1973 in Duffy’s rectangular studio at 151a King Henry’s Road, London. In attendance were Duffy, Bowie, Duffy’s studio manager Francis Newman, Celia Philo (who assisted Duffy with the typography layout) and make-up artist Pierre Laroche. Newman recalls that Bowie’s flamboyant manager Tony Defries was there at the start but didn’t stay for the duration of the shoot.He reveals, ‘Tony Defries commissioned it through [his company] MainMan Productions. I don’t think there was any budget as such. Tony just told Duffy to get on with it. Duffy told the story that Tony wanted it to be as expensive as possible to commit RCA into promoting it. Certainly it was [expensive] because the dye transfer print was incredibly expensive, about Ј1,000, which given that our day rate at the time was about Ј300 – that’s a lot of money.’ The images from the shoot were taken with Duffy’s Hasselblad using a ring flash unit, made by David Cecil, on Ektachrome ASA 64 120-format film. Duffy briefed Newman the day before the shoot and Newman went in at around 8am to set the studio up.
Newman recalls, ‘The others arrived in dribs and drabs and I think Bowie was last. They all disappeared into Duffy’s office to discuss what they were going to do. Every now and then Bowie would appear, open the front door and have a fag. Every time he came out I had a chat with him. He was absolutely charming . Eventually they all came out [of the office] and said “OK” and we got started.’ Lightning bolt make-up The iconic lightning bolt make-up is said to have been inspired by a product logo. Newman remembers, ‘I wasn’t party to the discussion of how the flash originated, although I do remember the rice cooker that his [Duffy’s] mother had given him with a National Panasonic flash on it, so I can believe that. After we’d been going for about half an hour in make-up Duffy was getting a bit irritated by Laroche, who was painstaking. Laroche started drawing this little flash on Bowie’s cheek and Duffy said, “No, not fucking like that, like this”. He got some lipstick and in ten seconds just drew the flash and then said, “Now fill that in”. And then we took the shots.’ Newman recalls the shoot only took 20 or 30 minutes. ‘As far as I remember we shot two rolls, 24 pictures, then we all went home.’ Once the pictures were done they went off to be airbrushed by Philip Castle, which included the addition of a small pool of water on Bowie’s collarbone and extra mascara. The whole project fell under the umbrella of Duffy Design Concepts. The last Photo is a contactsheet of the shoot.