$5 to $50K, and climbing

June 17, 2021 11:26 PM

A 1997 painting by David Bowie, DHead XLVI, was purchased for $5 at a thrift shop three hours north of Toronto. Current auction bid is $50,100.00

DHead XLVI is from Bowie’s Dead Head series of portraits of friends, family members and bandmates painted from 1995 to ‘97. Self-portraits were also part of the series – one of which sold at auction in Glasgow for £22,500 in 2016. (The Globe and Mail)

This 1997 painting was found in a Goodwill shop in South River, Ontario, and the identity of the portrait subject is unknown. Canadian auction house Cowley Abbott's presale estimate for the work, a 9.75" x 8" (24.8 x 20.3 cms) acrylic and computer collage on canvas, was $9,000.00 - $12,000.00. DHead XLVI is lot #27 in Cowley Abbott's International Art auction (June 15 - June 24).

[a smattering of previouslies]

posted by Iris Gambol (8 comments total)

This could be a portrait of Trent Reznor with his hook nose. They toured together for five months in 1995, so it'd be around the right time. Trent credits David for getting him off drugs and saving his life. He quotes Bowie: "You know, there is a better way here, and it doesn't have to end in despair or in death, in the bottom". If David fucking Bowie gives you advice, take it! He might paint you.

It's a pity we don't have the story from Bowie's easel to thrift store. Here's a gallery of his other work including the DHead paintings, which they cite one selling at auction for $28k. Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see his self portraits, they're fantastic. So talented. Poet, painter, performer, actor, songwriter, alien and human... whatever he did he did so well. We miss you Starman!
posted by adept256 at 3:05 AM on June 18, 2021 [14 favorites]

I forgot to mention, there's a 15 foot tall mural of Ziggy Stardust in my neighborhood, so in a way I live with my own Bowie painting.
posted by adept256 at 3:10 AM on June 18, 2021 [8 favorites]

Woah woah woah... That's $5 Canadian... So, $4.02 stateside.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:35 AM on June 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see his self portraits

I did and I'm so glad that I did. Thank you.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:55 AM on June 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Woah woah woah... That's $5 Canadian... So, $4.02 stateside.

Hilariously, that NPR article actually did do the currency conversion and listed the price as “$4.09.”

I can’t access the Globe and Mail article, but I am tickled by the headline of this CBC article, which describes the actual location of the painting not as a thrift store or Goodwill shop but as “the dump”: David Bowie painting found in dump near North Bay, Ont., expected to fetch up to $12K. (That seems technically true, though more accurately, there’s a donation centre at the entrance to the dump/landfill, where they sell saleable items.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:33 PM on June 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have any insight on what "computer collage" means in the item description? It just looks like paint on canvas to me, but is it actually painted over a photograph of the subject?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:37 AM on June 19, 2021

It sold for $108,120! Not bad for five bucks.
posted by oulipian at 1:36 PM on June 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

My favorite Bowie painting is his portrait of Yukio Mishima. Imagine finding that at a thrift store. I'd never sell it.
posted by droplet at 2:06 PM on June 24, 2021