David Hockney

Jessica Power (Me) ~ Elephant 2007




David Hockney ~Pearblossom Highway, 1986

I had a project to find an artist whose work is similar to mine and discuss his life via Power Point. Here is my Power Point notes:

Today I’m going to talk about David Hockney, is known as one of Britiains greatest artists and he has done work in arious mediums including drawing, oil painting, and photography.
Born 1937 Bradford, England.
• Raised in “radical working class family” Methodists, Sunday school, Jesus cartoons, no smoking or drinking, developed love for opera.
• 1953 Bradford school of art, gained a love for painting, disliked other classes wanted to go to the Regional College of Art in London.
• Sees artwork of contemporaries Francis Bacon, Picasso, Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists. Went against avant-garde trend of abstraction
• 1960s Artwork expressed poetry and beliefs. He began painting about his sexual orientation and would include words in his paintings like “unorthodox lover” and “queer”
1960s
We 2 boys together clinging together. His work was seen by some to be controversial because homosexuality was illegal in England at that time. In the early 1960s his work was narrative and tended to tell stories.
NEW SLIDE
• First trip to America in 1961. New York befriended Andy Warhol and Denis Hopper
• 1963 first solo exhibition in London
• First trip to California. Moved to Santa Monica. Started pool paintings that reflected the sunny laid-back lifestyle of California.
• 1964-67 Starts teaching at universities in Iowa, Colorado, LA, and Berkeley. While in Colorado he was inspired by Rocky Mountains which was later reflected in some of his works.
Bigger Splash 1967
Shows the kind o work he was doing at this time. California- inspired. Developed the naturalistic, realistic style he is most known for today. That same year he also met Peter Schlesinger, who became his romantic partner and inspiration for various photographs and paintings during that time.
1970s
Moves to Paris with Peter Schelsinger
Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy (1970-1971), naturalism -- that is, representing things as they were actually seen. His interest in photography grew. Hockney’s work tends to reflect and interest in perspective and painting reality.
1970’s continued
• Travels between California, New York, and France

Hockney’s first retrospective, David Hockney: Paintings, Prints and Drawings 1960
• Works on set designs for various Operas including The Rakes Progress and The Magic Flute
• Continues working with photography and making large scale lithographs.
Night Garden, Rakes of Progress
1980s
• 1982 First composite Polaroids and photograph collages. Dissatisfied with the distortion created by a wide-angle lens. "joiners"
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• 1985 Designs cover and forty pages for the December 1985 issue of French Vogue magazine.
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• 1988 Starts painting seascapes, potted plants, family and friends. Tate Gallery, London. Hockney threatens to cancel the exhibition at the Tate in protest over proposed anti-homosexual legislation in Great Britain. Also had issues with Tate over their preference of abstract art.
Fax machines and photo copiers . fascinated wanted to make work that was intended to be photocopied, laser-printed or faxed. "I thought, 'Ah, this is a telephone for the deaf!' " he said of discovering the fax machine. "But I quickly realized not only can I send notes, but I could send drawings. And I decided if you made drawings especially for a fax machine, you could make interesting things." The New York Times
Paintings 1980s
Potted Jade, 1988
Breakfast at Malibu, Sunday, 1989
Collages
Merced River, Yosemite Valley, 1982
Telephone Pole, 1982
Collages
Pearblossom Highway, 1986. One of my favorite collages, because it doesn’t look like a series of photographs placed together.
1990’s
• Operas and plays
• 1995 Begins drawings of his two dogs Stanley and Boodgie . The portraits are published in a book titled Dog Days in 1998
• Paints BMW car for BMW car collection
• 1998 Paints a “Bigger Grand Canyon”
Shows in multiple galleries and exhibits in L.A., New York, and London
OPERA
Premiered in 1992 in Chicago
2000-Now
• 2000 Started research on theories on old masters and their use of mechanical devices
• 2001 Completes book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
• Works with BBC on a documentary about his findings

Hockney's fascination with the subject is contagious, and the book feels almost like a game with each analysis a "How'd they do that?" instead of a whodunit. While some may find the technical revelation a disappointment in terms of the idea of genius, Hockney is quick to point out that the use of optics does not diminish the immensity of artistic achievement. He reminds the reader that a tool is just a tool, and it is still the artist's hand and creative vision that produce a work of art. Mirrors and lenses.
• Focuses on creating watercolors centered around nature
2007 regarding the landscape with new eyes, a reassessment that intensified with the death of his mother in 1999. Back in Los Angeles, he began painting Yorkshire from memory; he settled there full time in 2005. In Mr. Hockney's eyes, his interest in his native landscape evolved naturally. He was born and raised in Bradford, a smoky Industrial Revolution-era metropolis in the western part of the county. Yet he has always had strong ties to the east: as a teenager he spent two summers stacking corn on a farm in Huggate. "It made me fall in love with this part of the world," he said. "I cycled all over it. And cycling, you really do realize it's quite hilly. It's not flat at all."
2012 Royal Academy in London new show.
Exploring computer art
Painted earlier this year using Photoshop iPhone
“Throughout his career, Hockney has made a series of abrupt changes of style, often associated with a change of materials or medium.” the dominant avant-garde trend was abstraction; he went against it by painting figuratively, often in bright colors and a primitivist style. "The ease with which he moves between the '60s and the present, his rebellious character and his refusal to be defined makes him very attractive to younger artists," Ms Iles said. 72 years old. Work is still changing and evolving. Art reflects his experiences. Never cared what others thought.
Bibliography

Howgate, Sarah. "The three David Hockneys." Times Online. 25 Oct. 2006. Web. 09 Feb. 2010. .
Weschler, Lawrence. "Hockney's iPhone Passion." The New York Review of Books. Oct. 2009. Web. 09 Feb. 2010. .
Kino, Carol. "David Hockney's Long Road Home." NYTimes.com. T, 15 Oct. 2009. Web. 09 Feb. 2010. .
"Renewal by refocusing — how David Hockney did it." Arts of Innovation: The Blog. Vault9, 12 July 2008. Web. 09 Feb. 2010. .
http://www.davidhockney.com/ ©2003–present DavidHockney.com accessed February 09, 2010.
http://www.hockneypictures.com/home.php ©David Hockney 2010 accesses February 09, 2010.