WHAT A MAN, WHAT A LIFE...
I have been to a couple of retrospective of his work. The last was probably in London at the Royal Academy in 2011, but looking around, it seemed as if I would be meeting a totally new Painter. The exhibition was in chronological order and not too easy to do otherwise but follow the arrows.
He was born Yorkshire in 1937 and received academic art training before entering the Royal Collage of Art in 1959. He met with Francis Bacon and was impressed and influenced by this work. Picasso too was another great influence…
Homosexuality was illegal at the time in the UK. When reading a book by Christopher Isherwood and Jean Rechy who depicted a modern America, Hockney was convinced that this was the place to be and set off for Los Angeles in 1964. The symbol of hedonism and liberty thrilled him. He got his driving licence, rented an apartment and a studio and his work became sunny and colourful. I liked what he said:-
Picasso worked every day.
Matisse worked every day. That’s what artists do.
That is the real artist.
I would think that he is a workaholic - even today at 80. He has adapted work on a camera, an iPhone, an iPad and seems to master many technical and sophisticated devices that most people of his age couldn’t care a thing about.
His early work at the Royal Collage of Art (1950-60) was very daring too as he addressed the question of homosexuality explicitly in his work.
“The moment you can learn to seal with homosexuality in art, it’s quite an exciting moment, just as in a sense when people “come out” it’s quite an exciting moment.
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I'm in the mood for love -1962 |
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| Cleaning teeth, early evening -1962 |
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| Flights into Italy. Swiss landscape -1962 |
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| Play within a Play - 1963 |
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| Self Portrait - 1954 |
His period “Demonstration of Versatility” seems to touch multiple references. Pop art and oh so many more. He was hungry to learn and more and more impressed with certain artists of that period…
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| Rocky Mountains and Tired Indian -1965 |
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| Portrait surrounded by artistic devices -1965 |
It is not surprising that the Californian period (1964-68) is filled with swimming pools which from my point of view made him emblematic. It is a period I know quite well and like us all, “A Bigger Splash” always comes to mind when I think of Hockney. I’ll be quite honest, I have also confused this period with Edward Hopper (1882-1967).
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| Sunbather -1966 |
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| Pool and Steps. Le Nid de Duke -1971 |
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| A Bigger Splash -1967 |
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| Portrait of an artist - 1972 |
Some of his drawings are quite beautiful. Although, I had a hang-up for the hands as they seemed to be badly proportioned compared with the rest of the body. Even so, there is something very sensual about these works…
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| Ossie wearing a Fairisile Sweater - 1970 |
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| Celia in Black dress with white flowers -1972 |
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| Christoper Isherwood and Don Bachardy - 1968 |
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| Fred and Marcia Weisman - 1968 |
The period of 1968-71 became the time of “Double Portraits” They are extraordinarily realistic and probably a vision borrowed from photos. Each double portrait became a pretext for a genuine phycological study. He wanted to know why the couples stayed together or how one member tried to capture the eye of the other during a sitting…that is especially true in the double portrait of Christopher Isherwood and David Bachardy done in 1968.
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| Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-71 |
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| Le Parc de Sources, Vichy - 1970: At first I thought this was the Luxembourg Gardens! |
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This particular painting “Rubber Ring floating in a swimming pool” (1971) reminded Hockney of a Max Ernst abstract. Of course the abstraction disappears when you have read the title!
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| Invented Man Revealing Still Life - 1975 |
He also did a lot of work for theatrical costumes which took him away from the photographic realism. In any case, he felt that he had exhausted that way of looking at his work. He invented different forms of spacial constructions - a very Picasso image and another which is like a collage of different periods...
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| Kerby (after Hogarth)Useful knowledge 1975 |
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| Kasmin, Los Angeles - 1982 |
If I liked that period, I am certainly less enthralled by “After Cubism” (1982-86). He apparently could assemble more than a 100 photographs with different perspectives. These paintings are a little too busy for me
The Inverted Perspectives period is one I really do like. (1980-81) - the landscapes are irregular with a reference to the fauvist colours
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| Nichols Canyon - 1980 |
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| Canyon Painting -1978 |
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| The Eleventh V.N. Painting - 1992 |
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| The 26th V.N. Painting -1992 |
In 1997, Hockney returned to Yorkshire as he wanted to be close to a very good friend who was dying. As he had to drive quite a long way to see his friend, he memorised the landscapes and colour and another period started.
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| Bigger Trees near Water -2007 |
His paintings became larger and larger, depicting his native Yorkshire. As he couldn’t paint such large canvasses outside he developed a technique of painting several canvasses at the same time and of the same size which he put together afterward
As you can imagine I was fascinated by his iPad and iPhone paintings and yet as I had seen these in the earlier Tate exhibition, what was on view here, seemed to be far less interesting. What was beautiful was his return to paintings of his garden in Santa Monica. A luminous palette - he worked from memory in his studio.
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| Garden - 2016 |
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| Garden 2015 |
It may not surprise you at all that I fell for his latter works in vibrant colours. The energy is spectacular and this is an artist he was in his 50’s and has gone on using these colours up until now. Hockney still has a lot to give and will undoubtedly die with a paintbrush in his hand...
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