David Bowie and William Boyd's Elaborate Hoax: The Fictional Artist Nat Tate

In 1998, musician David Bowie and writer William Boyd orchestrated an elaborate art world hoax by inventing a fictional American artist named Nat Tate. The concept originated during a 1990s editorial meeting at the magazine Modern Painters, where editor Karen Wright suggested incorporating fiction. Boyd proposed creating an artist, and Bowie, a board member, recommended publishing it as a book through 21 Publishers, which he co-directed. Boyd crafted a detailed biography for Tate: born in 1928 in Union Beach, raised on Long Island, orphaned young, and trained under painter Hans Hofmann in Provincetown. Tate was depicted as an abstract painter who exhibited in New York from 1952, befriended intellectuals, traveled to Europe in 1959 to meet Georges Braque, but ultimately destroyed most of his works and disappeared in 1960, presumed to have jumped from a Staten Island ferry. The book, 'Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960,' included fabricated black-and-white photos, three artworks (like 'Portrait of K' and bridge drawings), and endorsements from figures like Gore Vidal and art historian John Richardson. Bowie hosted a launch party on April 1, 1998, at Jeff Koons's Manhattan studio, where many attendees, including prominent artists and critics, initially accepted Tate's existence. However, journalist David Lister investigated, uncovering inconsistencies such as non-existent galleries, and exposed the hoax in The Independent and The New York Times. Boyd later incorporated Tate into his novel 'Any Human Heart' and auctioned a Tate drawing at Sotheby's in 2011 for charity. The hoax highlighted issues of authenticity and credibility in the art world, with Boyd noting it aimed to question perceptions of reality. The story resurfaced after Bowie's death in 2016 and in a 2020 reissue with behind-the-scenes details.