Let’s bid: David Bowie album artwork for sale, direct from the artist who created it

Diptych sketch for Scary Monsters album artwork (1980). Estimated at £400-£600
Courtesy of Halls Fine Art

For David Bowie fans, it’s a dream come true: the chance to buy original artwork, designs, portraits, sculptures and band photoshoots from the personal collection of the artist who designed the cover of one of his most successful albums.When Bowie commissioned Edward Bell to create the album artwork for Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), the highly acclaimed album following the Berlin Trilogy, it was the beginning of a relationship that was to last into the 1990s, taking in the rock and pop chameleon’s Tin Machine period too.The album marked Bowie’s transition to a more commercial approach to music making that was to bring him greatest success three years later with the album Let’s Dance and The Serious Moonlight tour.Now, Halls Fine Art auction house in Shrewsbury, UK, have partnered with the Dory Gallery in Wales to present unique artworks—some personally inscribed by Bowie himself and all offered on the market for the first time—in a dedicated online auction under the title The David Bowie Collection of Artist Edward Bell.

Tin Machine album cover, stamped March 1991, inscribed in pen by David Bowie “Jolly good, a splendid effort keep it up”. Estimated at £2,000 to £4,000
Courtesy of Halls Fine Art

Pieces on offer include a series of portraits showing Bowie as Lazarus and the Savage Heart sculpture created to decorate the CD album cover for Tin Machine II.Perhaps of most interest to fans will be original proofs for the 1980 hit single Fashion and original proofs for the Scary Monsters album cover design, as well as Bell’s original diptych sketch of Bowie for the Scary Monsters album—and the original photos that inspired it.Prices are accessible too, with much of what is on offer in the hundreds of pounds, rising to estimates of £1,000-£2,000 for the most sought-after pieces, including the Scary Monsters cover design proofs.“My personal favourite is lot 42, the Savage Heart sculpture, which was modelled on Bowie’s torso for the Tin Machine II artwork,” says Halls Fine Art specialist, Abigail Molenaar.The 120-lot auction will run from July 16 to August 1.


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