The curator of a new exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s album Aladdin Sane has said the record’s artwork is “as powerful today as it was then”.
The curator of a new exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s album Aladdin Sane has said the record’s artwork is “as powerful today as it was then”.
The Aladdin Sane: 50 Years exhibition has been curated by Chris Duffy, the son of photographer Brian Duffy – who worked with the late Bowie to create his highly recognisable lightning flash portrait.
Launching on April 6 at the Southbank Centre, the collection marks half a century since the 1973 release of the musician’s sixth studio album and will explore the creation of its famous cover art as well as hosting a line-up of live music and talks.
Asked if the image helped carve a path for gender-nonconformity in art, music photographer Chris told the PA news agency: “50 years on you can retrospectively read things into an image and of course with Aladdin Sane imagery is as powerful today as it was then.
“One never knows how something becomes, certainly in this instance, I would suggest a cultural icon.
“And there’s a lot of moving parts that come together for something to become unique. So I think people read into things. I think at the time David would have had different reasons why he put that imagery together and brought in other creatives to create that image.”
He added that from the year of its release, the album cover really stood out amongst the others at the time due to its “striking” nature, but noted that it has continued to cause speculation.
