Palermo, David Bowie told by Sukita: more than one hundred portraits on display

Palazzo Sant’Elia in Palermo hosts from May 28 to July 31, 2021 the exhibition Heroes - Bowie by Sukita, which after a forced closure reopens to the public. The exhibition chronicles the long friendship between David Bowie and Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita: one hundred shots that create an immersive journey through the legend of the White Duke.

In April 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop had just arrived in Tokyo to promote The Idiot: Masayoshi Sukita had already known Bowie for five years, ever since, thunderstruck by a poster for The Man Who Sold The World, he managed to get in touch with the White Duke, initiating a relationship that would last until the singer’s death. During a day off that year, Sukita asked Bowie and Iggy Pop to pose for him in a brief photo session. In just two hours, Sukita shot six rolls of film and also took the iconic photograph that would later become the cover of the Heroes album. Other shots of the two artists around Tokyo, or during Iggy’s birthday party, would later be added. The only photos that document Bowie and Sukita’s friendship, surviving themselves and the world around them, remain: Bowie and Iggy in jeans and leather jacket, T-shirt and shirt, without makeup.

“The reopening of the Palazzo Sant’Elia exhibitions has the flavor of hope toward the future,” says Superintendent Antonio Ticali. "We thought it appropriate to extend the exhibition Heroes. Bowie by Sukita, postponing the opening of the new cultural events, to continue to provide an immersive experience in which photos and music tell the myth. The new exhibition hours that cover the entire week, and in particular, the Friday through Sunday evening openings, are designed to cater to audiences who, after a long period of closures, will want to linger. The decision to open the exhibition on Mondays is then a gesture of attention and support to hotels and B&Bs that ask for cultural proposals at the beginning of the week, to offer tourists cues for longer stays than just a weekend."

The retrospective is dedicated to the 40-year professional and personal relationship between one of the most important icons of contemporary popular culture, and Japanese master Masayoshi Sukita, arguably the most important photographer David Bowie has ever worked with. On display at Palazzo Sant’Elia are more than one hundred portraits, some as national premieres, chronicling a partnership that lasted many years. For the first time, the exhibition is accompanied by an immersive video installation that allows visitors to enter Bowie and Sukita’s world.

The collaborative relationship between the two began in 1972: Sukita arrived in London to immortalize Marc Bolan and T-Rex, and although he was unaware of who David Bowie was, he decided to go to one of his concerts because he was attracted by the poster promoting him and depicting him with one leg raised, against a black background. Sukita is able to meet Bowie personally with the help of his friend and stylist Yasuko [Yakko] Takahashi, and he gets a shoot. Bowie is thunderstruck by Sukita’s style, and although the shoot proceeds in complete silence because of the language barrier, something clicks between the two, a common feeling based on continued artistic pursuit that gives birth to a professional and human relationship that would last until Bowie’s passing in 2016.

Over the years Bowie and Sukita worked together on almost every occasion when the former was in Japan or when the photographer was in the United States, but the posed studio shoots were soon followed by more familiar and personal photo sessions. The relationship established between the two enabled the creation of some of David Bowie’s most famous images.

Promoted and organized by OEO Florence Art and Le Nozze di Figaro with Fondazione Sant’Elia, the exhibition is curated by Ono Arte Contemporanea, under the patronage of the City of Palermo and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. MLC communication.

For info: www.fondazionesantelia.it

Hours: Monday through Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Tickets: Full 8 euros, reduced 6 euros. Free up to 6 years old.

Ph.Credit Masayoshi Sukita

Palermo, David Bowie told by Sukita: more than one hundred portraits on display

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