ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Did David Bowie borrow the pose featured on his Heroes album from a painting?

By Charles Legge[1]

Published: 01:30, 27 May 2024 | Updated: 01:30, 27 May 2024

QUESTION Did David Bowie[2] borrow the pose featured on his Heroes album from a painting?

In 1975, David Bowie was living in Los Angeles[3] but his life was spiralling out of control; he was obsessed with the occult and, by his own admission, was surviving on a diet of milk, peppers and cocaine.

In 1976, he decamped to West Berlin[4] accompanied by his acolyte Iggy Pop[5]. There he produced his groundbreaking triptych of albums: Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979).

In 1975, David Bowie was living in Los Angeles but his life was spiralling out of control. Pictured, album cover for Heroes

Tomorrow’s questions

Q: Which was the UK’s first department store?

Philip Stanley-Watts, Bournemouth, Dorset.

Q: I read that the introduction of sulfonamide started a pharmaceutical revolution. How?

Hayley Sanders, Huddersfield, West Yorks.

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Bowie became fascinated by the work of German Expressionists and was deeply affected by Erich Heckel’s Roquairol (1917), which hung in Berlin’s Brucke Museum.

Roquairol was a haunting portrait of Heckel’s friend, the artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Kirchner had suffered a nervous breakdown and the disturbing image showed him in a state of nervous collapse with his left arm contorted. It summed up Bowie’s state of mind. Under Bowie’s direction, Iggy Pop mimicked the pose in a black-and-white photograph for the cover of his album The Idiot.

Bowie’s Heroes portrait was created in collaboration with photographer Masayoshi Sukita.

It too borrowed the stylised pose of Roquairol, with Bowie’s weirdly stiff arm and hand position, but it also took inspiration from Heckel’s Mannerbildnis (Portrait Of A Man), from 1919, with its gaunt and melancholy face.

Simon Wilson, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.

QUESTION Which is the largest roundabout in the UK?

Some have claimed that the 117-mile long M25 London orbital is a candidate but it is not a roundabout (stock image of a roundabout in Birmingham)

On the north side of Cardiff, at junction 32 of the M4, is the Coryton roundabout.

It is the largest in the UK, with a circumference of nearly a mile.

Some have claimed that the 117-mile long M25 London orbital is a candidate but it is not a roundabout. Nor does it have a continuous orbital route: the Dartford Crossing, across the Thames, isn’t a motorway but a general purpose road, the A282.

L. T.

Graham, Chepstow, Mons.

QUESTION What’s the largest flower in the world?

The white water-lily is boasts the largest flowers among native flora – up to eight inches in diameter (Kew Gardens press image)

Further to the earlier answer, while it can’t compare with the corpse flower, the white water-lily is a far more beautiful plant that boasts the largest flowers among native flora – up to eight inches in diameter.

The best place to see them is in the Norfolk Broads.

Helen Robinson, Brundall, Norfolk.

References

1. ^ Charles Legge (www.dailymail.co.uk)
2. ^ David Bowie (www.dailymail.co.uk)
3. ^ Los Angeles (www.dailymail.co.uk)
4. ^ Berlin (www.dailymail.co.uk)
5. ^ Iggy Pop (www.dailymail.co.uk)