David Hockney is one of the influential artists of the 20th century, setting accents as a painter, photographer and stage designer, but emphatically refusing categorisation. He sees himself as an anarchist who creates his own paths and avoids the beaten track.
(...) Continue readingDavid Hockney – Training in England, breakthrough in America
David Hockney was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 9 July 1937. One of five siblings, his father, a bookmaker, cultivated painting as a hobby and encouraged his son’s artistic talent. Hockney thus studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959, where one of his colleagues was the famous film director Ridley Scott, and he also became acquainted with the painter R. B. Kitaj. David Hockney’s early art exhibited influences from his friend and supporter Francis Bacon; the early traces of Expressionism were however quickly lost, and his work became more colourful and more realistic. This development was strengthened and promoted by Hockney’s move to California. In the 1960s, the liberal city of Los Angeles offered the artist the ideal opportunities for development, and his acquaintance with Henry Geldzahler, curator of 20th century art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, brought with it many stimuli as well as useful contacts.
Pool pictures, portraits and photo collages
In his new adopted home, spoilt with sunshine, he created fitting pictures in bright colours, mainly showing swimming pools. David Hockney became famous with this motif as a hallmark, but also made many portraits of friends and acquaintances. Hockney himself sat for the painter Lucian Freud– for a total of 120 strenuous hours, he once revealed, whilst in contrast, Hockney’s own picture of Freud took only 3 hours. David Hockney designed stage sets for renowned opera houses such as the Scala in Milan or the Metropolitan Opera in New York – an activity that was consistent with the artist’s preference for the large format, as, according to the artist, art must be large in order to be perceived. In the 1970s, David Hockney dedicated himself to photography and created extensive collages from numerous Polaroid photographs - this new direction also proved very successful.
Return to England, large-scale landscapes
As painter and photographer, Hockney took part in documenta 4 and 6, and his probably most famous picture, “A Bigger Splash”, inspired the director Jack Hazan in 1975 to make a film about David Hockney. In the year 2000, the artist returned to England and concentrated mainly on landscape painting; his works became larger and more colourful and linear –Hockney even had a special transport vehicle designed to carry his multi-canvas landscape panoramas. Even away for the canvas, Hockney values directness and does not mince his words: a passionate smoker, Hockney never misses an opportunity to criticise the worldwide growing number of smoking bans, which he believes are only to the benefit of the pharmaceutical industry. Great art without drugs is unthinkable anyway, is one of the artist’s credos. This attitude does not have an affect on the value of his pictures: works by David Hockney still sell for millions. Although art experts try time and again to assign Hockney’s style to Pop Art, the artist has vehemently opposed this to this day.
David Hockney - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
