David Bowie: Rockstar or Artist?

David Bowie (aka David Robert Jones) is the ultimate king of transformation not only in music, but in art, fashion, film, sexual exploration, and social mores. Known for mega-popular albums, such as Space Oddity, Changes, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans, Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory, and others, Bowie also produced the seminal album Transformer for Lou Reed.

Bowie is also an artist. Having gone to art school, he paints, draws, and makes prints. His influences include Schiele, Picabia, and the Surrealists. A voracious reader (apparently he reads a book a day), Bowie is the modern Renaissance man. Multi-faceted, multi-talented Bowie is married to supermodel Iman and just this February put out the music video The Stars (Are Out Tonight) starring Tilda Swinton. 

Born in 1947 in Brixton and recently voted best-dressed Briton of all time by the BBC, no one epitomizes the power of change more than David Bowie. 

See the "David Bowie is" exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, on view through November 27, 2013.