DAVID HOCKNEY
David Hockney (born 1937) is one of Britain’s greatest living artists, widely considered a national treasure and an icon of British culture and history. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1991, and in 2012 the Queen appointed him the Order of Merit, Britain’s highest honour. Hockney has spent long periods living and working in Los Angeles, Europe and London as well as his native Yorkshire. His contribution to modern British art was commemorated in a major exhibition of his Yorkshire landscapes at the Royal Academy in 2011.
Hockney rapidly achieved a degree of commercial success unusual for a young painter before finishing at the Royal College. A luminary of the sixties ‘Swinging London’ scene, Hockney was commonly perceived as the star of Pop but he himself resisted this association with the group and has rarely used commercial imagery as his starting point. He demonstrates a much more personal appropriation of visual culture, creating figurative works rooted in autobiography. Hockney’s early canvases contain direct references to homosexuality and graffiti-like, scribbled words, which owe much to the naïve style of Jean Dubuffet while demonstrating a more serious ethical stance. In other works he tackles fear of failure with a jocular self-derision, as in the semi-autobiographical A Rake’s Progress (1961-63) etchings, that narrate his trip to America in 1960 during which he sought success as an artist and to explore his sexuality. Hockney has also created numerous self-portraits in a humorous mixture of idealisation and satire of his public image.
Hockney’s distinctive, highly colourful canvases represent the world of leisure and glamour, youth and liberation that characterised the sixties and reflect the increasing optimism and wealth of the period. His depictions of the sunlit, carefree world of clear blue swimming pools and perfectly trimmed lawns in his iconic California paintings have contributed to his enduring appeal. Yet Hockney has always remained faithful to the major genres in art, including landscapes, still lifes, portraits and nudes, as well as timeless themes such as the artist and his model, inspired in particular by Picasso.
Since his days as a student Hockney has remained adventurous, unconventional and unorthodox in his approach to art. He has constantly experimented with new styles and techniques, recently adding iPad drawings to his prolific work in a wide range of media, including drawing, painting, watercolour, etching, photography and video. He has also created the stage designs for the Royal Opera House in London, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera among others. Hockney’s approach has always been nonconformist and he has shown himself to be a continuous innovator, uncovering new possibilities in art at every stage in his career.