Take a Peek at David Bowie's Idiosyncratic Art Collection

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"Art was, seriously, the only thing I'd ever wanted to own," legendary musician David Bowie, who died on Sunday, January 10 at age 69, told theNew York Times in 1998. "It can change the way that I feel in the mornings."

He went on to espouse his admiration for Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, and Francis Picabia, and his appreciation of Marcel Duchamp's sense of humor—although Bowie allowed that "there's the other side of me that thinks he did it just because he couldn't paint."

This love of art manifested itself in the music: As early as 1969, Bowie referenced Georges Braque in the lyrics of "Unwashed and Slightly Dazed." "Joe the Lion," released in 1977, pays tribute to a Chris Burdenperformance art piece with the line "nail me to my car and I'll tell you who you are." In 1974, Bowie based the set design for his Diamond Dogs tour in part on the work of satirical German artist George Grosz.

Bowie's well-known love of fine art, however, has led to some exaggeration about the scope and breadth of his holdings. "Last week I was approached by a magazine about doing an interview on my 'Surrealist and PreRaphaelite' collection," said Bowie in 2003, as recounted by Nicholas Pegg's The Complete David Bowie (2011). "This was news to me."

"Yes, I do have a (too frequently remarked upon) Tintoretto and a smallRubens… but the majority of what I have are British 20th century and not terribly big names," Bowie insisted. "I've gone for what seemed to be an important or interesting departure at a certain time, or something that typified a certain decade, rather than go for Hockneys or Freuds or whatever."

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