Art & Exhibitions

Steve McQueen Brings Nina Simone and David Bowie Together in an Unlikely Duet

At Guggenheim Bilbao, the British artist has married the voices of the music titans in a work that spans decades.

Archival images of Nina Simone and David Bowie. Courtesy Guggenheim Bilbao.

by Jo Lawson-Tancred Oct 28, 2026

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One of those rare artists to make it big as a film director, Steve McQueen is best known for his work with the moving image. But in his latest project at Guggenheim Bilbao , McQueen has stripped away all visual distraction, plunging visitors into a startlingly unusual sound installation.

When I visited the Basque city ahead of 66-76-26 ‘s opening on October 9, I was a little skeptical of its ability to wow, especially in such an architecturally grand space. The show, I’d heard, was composed simply of two versions of a song, “Wild Is the Wind,” one by Nina Simone from 1966 and another made a decade later by David Bowie . Their dates inform the work’s title.…