BOOK DESCRIPTION

David Bowie was an icon of modern world. His career presents us with one of the most inventive and intriguing aspects of recent musical history. In 'Triptych' Paul Chapman gives an art historians analysis of Bowie's Berlin period. This book chronicles the three short years Bowie spent in Berlin and the three pieces of work he made there. It examines how the visual arts influenced his music during this period, the books main theme is appropriation, how Bowie's art was influenced by Berlin's artistic past and the contemporary art scene in which Bowie played a part. In this fascinating account of Bowie's Berlin years we see how the Influece of the Expressionist painters of 'Die Brucke' and the artists of Berlin's 'Club Dada' alongside more contemporary artists and musicians shaped and formed Bowie's musical output. The author tells of how Bowie and his musical collaboraters mixed and matched artistic influneces from the city's past and present to produce a new and inventive musical style. We see how Bowie took references from, the Expressionist painters of the early 20th century, the films of the Weimar period, Berlin Dada, Brectian theatre and the contemporary filmakers and painters of 1970's Berlin and fused them together and created his three albums now known as the Berlin Triptych.