David Hockney: Paintings

by Paul Melia, Ulrich Luckhardt, David Hockney

One of the most widely acclaimed of all living artists, David Hockney has, in some ways, been the victim of his own popularity. Frequently interpreted as the lightweight expression of a colourful personality, his work is in fact characterized by an underlying seriousness of purpose. This emerges with particular clarity from the fresh appraisal of the artist's oeuvre offered in this book.
Each of the volume's six chapters, broadly chronological in sequence, is introduced by an essay that examines in depth certain aspects of Hockney's artistic practice. The complexity of his seemingly straightforward imagery is further elucidated in the commentaries accompanying each of the sixty-three carefully selected colour plates. These encompass the period from 1960 to 1993, from work produced during the artist's student days at the Royal College of Art in London to his most recent paintings, informed by his experience of designing for the stage and by his experiments with photo-collage and fax art. Included are paintings being illustrated for the first time and others that have rarely been reproduced in colour. Numerous black-and-white illustrations of related works provide important reference material. An illustrated chronology and a selected bibliography conclude this lucid, authoritative account of Hockney's development.
With access to the artist's personal archives, the authors have drawn on new documentary research to dispel certain myths about Hockney's work and open up new lines of enquiry. Intended for the general reader, this book will also be of interest to all students of modern painting and to admirers of one of its most appealing exponents.

Genres: Art

Paperback

First published January 31, 1994

Reviews

[Renate · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone like me, who knows very little about art and even less about David Hockney, this chronological retrospective of David Hockney's work and life up until the mid-90's was easy to read. I liked the layout. There are more pictures than text. Each chapter spans a number of years, starts with a description of Hockney's life and work during that period and is then followed by a number of colour plates, each accompanied by a detailed discussion.

It is clear to see Hockney's development over the years. Once he moved beyond his initial "penis" phase the pictures become more pleasing to the eye (in my opinion). I was intrigued with his experiments with perspective. Without knowing that is what the artist was trying to do, I would have dismissed the particular pictures as 'child art'.

I read this book in anticipation of David Hockney's A Bigger Picture Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Although this book was published just before the years which the exhibition covers, and in spite of being only half-way through the book at the time, I enjoyed the exhibition more than I would otherwise have done. For example, had I not known that Hockney had experimented with the likes of photography many years ago I may have dismissed the iPad and video sections of the exhibition as too gimmicky. Some of the older works such as "Mulholland Drive" and "Pearblossom Hwy" were a thrill to see for real.

I read somewhere that, after Lucian Freud died in late 2011, Hockney became "Britain's greatest living artist". Personally, I don't like all his work, but found that some grow on you as you look at them more and more. Reading this book has just once again confirmed to me that knowledge and understanding of a subject helps one to appreciate it better.

[robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

this has mostly poor subject matter - mostly ludicrously bright and primary colored interiors populated with ordinariy chairs and bric a brac and books...sorry but I find that really boring. DH was obviously exploring Matisse's interiors in many of these paintings of DH's [boring] domestic life...but DH adds nothing to them... gosh hate to sound negative but there it is.

[Roberto Molly]

oh, makes me happy/