David Hockney | |
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.jpg) Hockney in 2017 | |
| Born | (1937-07-09)9 July 1937 (age 87) Bradford,West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Education |
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| Known for | |
| Notable work | |
| Movement | Pop art |
| Awards |
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| Website | hockney |
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an Englishpainter,draughtsman,printmaker,stage designer, andphotographer. As an important contributor to thepop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.[2][3]
Hockney has owned residences and studios inBridlington andLondon as well as two residences inCalifornia, where he has lived intermittently since 1964: one in theHollywood Hills, one inMalibu. He has an office and stores his archives onSanta Monica Boulevard[4] inWest Hollywood, California.[5][6][7]
On 15 November 2018, Hockney's 1972 workPortrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold atChristie's auction house inNew York City for $90 million (£70 million), becoming themost expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction.[8][9][10] It broke the previous record which was set by the 2013 sale ofJeff Koons'Balloon Dog (Orange) for $58.4 million.[11] Hockney held the record until 15 May 2019 when Koons reclaimed the honour by selling hisRabbit for more than $91 million at Christie's in New York.[12]
David Hockney was born inBradford,West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the fourth of five children of Kenneth Hockney (1904-1978)[13][14] who was an accountant's clerk who later ran his own accountancy business,[15] and who had been aconscientious objector in theSecond World War, and Laura (1900-1999) née Thompson,[16] a devoutMethodist and strict vegetarian.[17][18][19][20] He was educated at Wellington Primary School,Bradford Grammar School,Bradford College of Art (his teachers there includedFrank Lisle[21] and his fellow students includedDerek Boshier,Pauline Boty, Norman Stevens, David Oxtoby, andJohn Loker)[22][23][24] and theRoyal College of Art in London, where he metR. B. Kitaj[19] andFrank Bowling.
At the Royal College of Art, Hockney featured – alongsidePeter Blake – in the exhibitionNew Contemporaries, which announced the arrival of BritishPop art. He was associated with the movement, but his early works displayexpressionist elements which are similar to some ofFrancis Bacon's works.
When the RCA said it would not let him graduate if he did not complete an assignment of a life drawing of a live model in 1962, Hockney paintedLife Painting for a Diploma in protest. He had refused to write an essay required for the final examination and said that he should be assessed solely on his artworks. Recognising his talent and growing reputation, the RCA changed its regulations and awarded him a diploma. After leaving the RCA, he taught atMaidstone College of Art for a short time.[25] He taught at theUniversity of Iowa in 1964.[26] Hockney also taught at theUniversity of Colorado, Boulder in 1965. Next he taught at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles from 1966 to 1967 and then at theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1967.[27]
In 1964, Hockney moved toLos Angeles, where he was inspired to make a series of paintings of swimming pools in the comparatively newacrylic medium using vibrant colours. He lived at various times in Los Angeles, London, andParis from the late 1960s to 1970s. In 1974 he began a decade-long personal relationship with Gregory Evans who moved with him to the US in 1976 and as of 2019 remains a business partner.[28]
In 1978 he rented a home in theHollywood Hills; he later bought and expanded the house to include his studio.[29] He also owned a 1,643-square-foot beach house at 21039Pacific Coast Highway inMalibu, which he sold in 1999 for about $1.5 million (£1.2Million).[30] In the 1990s, Hockney returned more often toYorkshire, usually every three months, to visit his mother[31] who died in 1999. Until 1997, he rarely stayed for more than two weeks,[31] when his friendJonathan Silver who was terminally ill, encouraged him to capture the local surroundings. At first he did this with paintings based on memory, some from his boyhood. In 1998, he completed his painting of theYorkshire landmark,Garrowby Hill.[32] Hockney returned to Yorkshire for increasingly longer stays and by 2003 was painting the countrysideen plein air in both oils and watercolour.[31]
He set up residence and studio in a converted bed and breakfast, in the seaside town ofBridlington, about 75 mi (121 km) from where he was born.[33] The oil paintings he produced after 2005 were influenced by his intensive studies in watercolour, a series titledMidsummer: East Yorkshire (2003–2004).[34] He created paintings made of multiple smaller canvases — two to fifty — placed together. To help him visualise work at that scale, he used digital photographic reproductions to study the day's work.[31] In spring 2020 he stayed at La Grande Cour, a farmhouse and studio inNormandy, during the globalCOVID-19 pandemic.
Hockney has experimented with painting, drawing, printmaking, watercolours, photography, and many other media including a fax machine, paper pulp, computer applications and iPad drawing programs.[35] The subject matter of interest ranges from still lifes to landscapes,portraits of friends, his dogs, andstage designs for theRoyal Court Theatre,Glyndebourne, and theMetropolitan Opera in New York City.
Hockney has returned to painting portraits throughout his career. From 1968, and for the next few years, he painted portraits and double portraits of friends, lovers, and relatives just under life-size in a realistic style that adroitly captured the likenesses of his subjects.[36] Hockney has repeatedly been drawn to the same subjects – his family, employees, artists Mo McDermott and Maurice Payne, various writers he has known, fashion designersCelia Birtwell andOssie Clark (Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1970–71), curatorHenry Geldzahler, art dealerNicholas Wilder,[37] George Lawson and his ballet dancer lover,Wayne Sleep, and also his romantic interests throughout the years, includingPeter Schlesinger and Gregory Evans.[38] Perhaps more than all of these, Hockney has turned to his own figure year after year, creating over 300 self-portraits.[39]
From 1999 to 2001 Hockney used acamera lucida for his research into art history as well as his own work in the studio.[40][41] He created over 200 drawings of friends, family, and himself using this antique lens-based device.
In 2016, theRoyal Academy exhibited Hockney's series entitled82 Portraits and 1 Still-life which traveled toCa' Pesaro in Venice, Italy, and theGuggenheim Museum Bilbao, in 2017 and to theLos Angeles County Museum of Art in 2018. Hockney calls the paintings started in 2013 "twenty-hour exposures" because each sitting took six to seven hours on three consecutive days.[42]
Hockney experimented with printmaking as early as a lithographSelf-Portrait in 1954 and worked in etchings during his time at RCA.[43] In 1965, the print workshopGemini G.E.L. approached him to create a series of lithographs with a Los Angeles theme. Hockney responded by creatingThe Hollywood Collection, a series of lithographs recreating the art collection of a Hollywood star, each piece depicting an imagined work of art within a frame. Hockney went on to produce many other portfolios with Gemini G.E.L. includingFriends, The Weather Series, andSome New Prints.[44] During the 1960s he produced several series of prints he thought of as 'graphic tales', includingA Rake's Progress (1961–63)[45] afterHogarth,Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy (1966)[46] andIllustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (1969).[47][43]
In 1973 Hockney began a fruitful collaboration withAldo Crommelynck, Picasso's preferred printer. In his atelier, he adopted Crommelynck's trademark sugar lift, as well as a system of the master's own devising of imposing a wooden frame onto the plate to ensure colour separation. Their early work together includedArtist and Model (1973–74) andContrejour in the French Style (1974).[43] In 1976–77 Hockney createdThe Blue Guitar, a suite of 20 etchings, each utilising Crommelynck's techniques and filled with references to Picasso. Thefrontispiece to the suite mentions Hockney's dual inspiration; "The Blue Guitar: Etchings By David Hockney Who Was Inspired By Wallace Stevens Who Was Inspired By Pablo Picasso".[48] The etchings refer to themes in a poem byWallace Stevens,The Man with the Blue Guitar. It was published by Petersburg Press in October 1977. That year, Petersburg also published a book in which the images were accompanied by the poem's text.[49]
In the summer of 1978, David Hockney stayed for six weeks with his friend the printerKen Tyler at Tyler's studio in New York, Tyler Graphics Ltd. Tyler invited Hockney to try a new technique with liquid paper. The process is painting with the paper itself, so the artist had to do it himself by hand. Each image becomes a unique work between printmaking and painting. In six weeks, Hockney created a total of 29 artworks with a series of 17 sunflowers and swimming pools.[50] Many of the works are very similar, differentiated by changes in colour choice and application of the colour. Some are solely coloured using paper pulp, while some use spray paint to achieve certain details.[51]
Some of Hockney's other print portfolios includeHome Made Prints (1986),[52]Recent Etchings (1998) andMoving Focus (1984–1986),[53] which contains lithographs related toA Walk Around the Hotel Courtyard, Acatlan. A retrospective of his prints, including 'computer drawings' printed on fax machines and inkjet printers, was exhibited atDulwich Picture Gallery in London 5 February – 11 May 2014 andBowes Museum, County Durham 7 June – 28 September 2014, with an accompanying publication,Hockney, Printmaker, by Richard Lloyd.[43]
In the early 1980s, Hockney began to producephoto collages—which, in his early explorations within his personal photo albums, he referred to as "joiners"[54]—first using Polaroid prints and subsequently 35mm, commercially processed colour prints. UsingPolaroid snaps or photolab-prints of a single subject, Hockney arranged a patchwork to make a composite image.[55] Because the photographs are taken from different perspectives and at slightly different times, the result is work that has an affinity withCubism. One of Hockney's major aims is discussing the way human vision works. Some pieces arelandscapes, such asPearblossom Highway #2,[2][56] othersportraits includingKasmin 1982;[57] andMy Mother, Bolton Abbey, 1982.[58]
Creation of the "joiners" occurred accidentally. He noticed in the late 1960s that photographers were using cameras with wide-angle lenses. He did not like these photographs because they looked somewhat distorted. While working on a painting of a living room and terrace in Los Angeles, he took Polaroid shots of the living room and glued them together, not intending for them to be a composition on their own. On looking at the final composition, he realised it created a narrative, as if the viewer moved through the room. He began to work more with photography after this discovery, stopping painting for a while to pursue this new technique exclusively.
However over time, he discovered what he couldnot capture with a lens, saying: "Photography seems to be rather good at portraiture, or can be. But, it can't tell you about space, which is the essence of landscape. For me anyway. EvenAnsel Adams can't quite prepare you for what Yosemite looks like when you go through that tunnel and you come out the other side."[59] Frustrated with the limitations of photography and its 'one-eyed' approach,[60] he returned to painting.
In December 1985 Hockney used theQuantel Paintbox, a computer that allowed the artist to sketch directly onto the screen. The resulting work was featured in aBBC series that profiled several artists. In 1999–2001, David's sister, Margaret, began experimenting with digital photography, scanning and computer printing, particularly making images of flowers scanning a small Japanese vase and fresh flowers.[61] In 2003, she was experimenting withPhotoshop, scanning summer flowers and building up images in layers which Margaret printed out on an A3 printer.[62] In 2004, David went to stay with Margaret and she helped him scan his sketchbook of Yorkshire landscape and David soon began using aWacom pad and pen directly into Photoshop.[63]
Since 2009, Hockney has painted hundreds of portraits, still lifes and landscapes using the BrushesiPhone[64] andiPad[65] application, often sending them to his friends.[65] In 2010 and 2011, Hockney visitedYosemite National Park to draw its landscape on his iPad.[66] He used an iPad in designing a stained glass window atWestminster Abbey which celebrated the reign ofQueen Elizabeth II. Unveiled in September 2018, the Queen's Window is located in the north transept of the Abbey and features a hawthorn blossom scene which is set in Yorkshire.[67]
From 2010 to 2014, Hockney created multi-camera movies using three to eighteen cameras to record a single scene. He filmed the landscape ofYorkshire in various seasons, jugglers and dancers, and his own exhibitions within thede Young Museum and theRoyal Academy of Arts.[68] His earlier photo collages influenced his shift to another medium, digital photography. He combined hundreds of photographs to create multi-viewpoint "photographic drawings" of groups of his friends in 2014.[69] Hockney picked the process back up in 2017, this time using the more advanced Agisoft PhotoScan photogrammetric software which allowed him to stitch together and rearrange thousands of photos. The resulting images were printed out as massive photomurals and were exhibited atPace Gallery andLACMA in 2018.[70]
In June 2007, Hockney's largest painting,Bigger Trees Near Warter or/ou Peinture sur le Motif pour le Nouvel Age Post-Photographique, which measures 15 by 40 feet (4.6 by 12.2 m), was hung in theRoyal Academy's largest gallery in its annualSummer Exhibition.[71] This work "is a monumental-scale view of a coppice in Hockney's native Yorkshire, between Bridlington and York. It was painted on 50 individual canvases, mostly working in situ, over five weeks last winter."[72] In 2008, he donated it toTate in London, saying: "I thought if I'm going to give something to the Tate I want to give them something really good. It's going to be here for a while. I don't want to give things I'm not too proud of ... I thought this was a good painting because it's of England ... it seems like a good thing to do."[73] The painting was the subject of a BBC1 Imagine film documentary by Bruno Wollheim calledDavid Hockney: A Bigger Picture (2009) which followed Hockney as he worked outdoors over the preceding two years.[74]
Hockney's first stage designs were forUbu Roi at London'sRoyal Court Theatre in 1966,[75]Stravinsky'sThe Rake's Progress at theGlyndebourne Festival Opera in England in 1975, andThe Magic Flute for Glyndebourne in 1978.[76] In 1980, he agreed to design sets and costumes for a 20th-century French triple bill at theMetropolitan Opera House with the titleParade. The works wereParade, a ballet with music byErik Satie;Les mamelles de Tirésias, an opera with libretto byGuillaume Apollinaire and music byFrancis Poulenc, andL'enfant et les sortilèges, an opera with libretto byColette and music byMaurice Ravel.[77] The reimagined set ofL'enfant et les sortilèges from the 1983 exhibitionHockney Paints the Stage is a permanent installation at theSpalding House branch of theHonolulu Museum of Art. He designed sets for another triple bill ofStravinsky'sLe sacre du printemps,Le rossignol, andOedipus Rex for theMetropolitan Opera in 1981[78] as well asRichard Wagner'sTristan und Isolde for theLos Angeles Music Center Opera in 1987,[79]Puccini'sTurandot in 1991 at theChicago Lyric Opera, andRichard Strauss'sDie Frau ohne Schatten in 1992 at theRoyal Opera House in London.[76] In 1994, he designed costumes and scenery for twelve opera arias for the TV broadcast ofPlácido Domingo'sOperalia in Mexico City. Technical advances allowed him to become increasingly complex in model-making. At his studio he had a proscenium opening 6 feet (1.8 m) by 4 feet (1.2 m) in which he built sets in 1:8 scale. He also used a computerised setup that let him punch in and program lighting cues at will and synchronise them to a soundtrack of the music.[76]
In 2017, Hockney was awarded theSan Francisco Opera Medal on the occasion of the revival and restoration of his production forTurandot.[80] The majority of his theatre works and stage design studies are found in the collection of The David Hockney Foundation.[81]
David Hockney has been featured in over 400 solo exhibitions and over 500 group exhibitions.[82] He had his first one-man show at Kasmin Limited when he was 26 in 1963, and by 1970 theWhitechapel Gallery in London had organised the first of several major retrospectives, which subsequently travelled to three European institutions.[83] LACMA also hosted a retrospective exhibition in 1988 which travelled to TheMet, New York, andTate, London. In 2004, he was included in the cross-generationalWhitney Biennial, where his portraits appeared in a gallery with those of a younger artist he had inspired,Elizabeth Peyton.[5]
In October 2006, theNational Portrait Gallery in London organised one of the largest ever displays of Hockney's portraiture work, including 150 paintings, drawings, prints, sketchbooks, and photocollages from over five decades. The collection ranged from his earliest self-portraits to work he completed in 2005. Hockney assisted in displaying the works and the exhibition, which ran until January 2007, was one of the gallery's most successful. In 2009, "David Hockney: Just Nature" attracted some 100,000 visitors at the Kunsthalle Würth inSchwäbisch Hall, Germany.[31]
From 21 January 2012 to 9 April 2012, the Royal Academy presentedA Bigger Picture,[84] which included more than 150 works, many of which take entire walls in the gallery's brightly lit rooms. The exhibition is dedicated to landscapes, especially trees andtree tunnels of his native Yorkshire.[85] Works included oil paintings, watercolours, and drawings created on an iPad[86] and printed on paper. Hockney said, in a 2012 interview, "It's about big things. You can make paintings bigger. We're also making photographs bigger, videos bigger, all to do with drawing."[87] The exhibition drew more than 600,000 visitors in under 3 months.[88] The exhibition moved to theGuggenheim Museum inBilbao, Spain from 15 May to 30 September, and from there to theLudwig Museum inCologne, Germany, between 27 October 2012 and 3 February 2013.[89]
From 26 October 2013 to 30 January 2014David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition was presented at thede Young Museum, one of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.[90] The largest solo exhibition Hockney has had, with 397 works of art in more than 18,000 square feet, was curated by Gregory Evans and included the only public showing ofThe Great Wall, developed during research forSecret Knowledge, and works from 1999 to 2013 in a variety of media from camera lucida drawings to watercolours, oil paintings, and digital works.
From 9 February to 29 May 2017David Hockney was presented at theTate Britain, becoming the most-visited exhibition in the gallery's history.[91] The exhibition marked Hockney's 80th year and gathered together "an extensive selection of David Hockney's most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades". Tabish Khan in his five-star review for Londonist draws attention to Hockney's adaptation of new technology for the exhibition stating “What we love the most about Hockney is that he doesn't stop experimenting with age. Many of his iPad drawings are on display and while not his finest work, they show he's willing to try out new tools and techniques”.[92] The show then travelled toCentre Georges Pompidou in Paris andThe Metropolitan Museum of Art.[93] The wildly popular retrospective landed among the top ten ticketed exhibitions in London and Paris for 2017 with over 4,000 visitors per day at the Tate and over 5,000 visitors per day in Paris.[94]
After the blockbuster exhibitions in 2017 of the works of decades past, Hockney went on to display his newest paintings on hexagonal canvases and mural-size 3D photographic drawings atPace Gallery in 2018.[95] He revisited paintings of Garrowby Hill, the Grand Canyon, and Nichols Canyon Road, this time painting them on hexagonal canvases to enhance aspects of reverse perspective.[96] In 2019, his early work featured in his nativeYorkshire atThe Hepworth Wakefield.[97]In April–June 2022 an exhibition "Hockney's Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction" was held at theFitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge[98] and at the city's Heong Gallery.[99] In 2023 theHonolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) presented "David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed, Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation." The exhibition is the largest retrospective print exhibition of Hockney's career, with more than 100 colourful prints, collages and photographic and iPad drawings, in a variety of media, spanning six decades of the artist's career.[100]
Hockney came out as gay when he was 23, while studying at theRoyal College of Art in London.[101] Britain decriminalised homosexual acts seven years later in theSexual Offences Act 1967. Hockney has explored the nature of gay love in his work, such in as the paintingWe Two Boys Together Clinging (1961), named after a poem byWalt Whitman. In 1963 he painted two men together in the paintingDomestic Scene, Los Angeles, one showering while the other washes his back.[38]
In the summer of 1966, while teaching atUCLA, he metPeter Schlesinger, an art student who posed for paintings and drawings, and with whom he became romantically involved.[102] Another of Hockney's romantic partners who was the subject of his work was Gregory Evans; the two met in 1971 and began a relationship in 1974. While no longer romantically involved, they still work together, with Evans managing the David Hockney Studio.[103] Hockney's current partner is longtime companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima. Also known as JP, he also works with Hockney in his studio as his chief assistant.[104]
In March 2013, Hockney's 23-year-old assistant, Dominic Elliott, died as a result of drinkingdrain cleaner at Hockney's Bridlington studio; he had earlier taken both drugs and alcohol. Hockney's partner drove Elliott toScarborough General Hospital where he later died. The inquest returned a verdict ofdeath by misadventure.[105][106][107] In November 2015 Hockney sold his house in Bridlington ending his connections with the town.[108][109]
Next he moved to Normandy and lived inRumesnil, nearBeuvron-en-Auge, until 2023, before returning to London.[110][111][112] He holds aCalifornia Medical Marijuana Verification Card, which enables him to buycannabis for medical purposes. He has used hearing aids since 1979, but realised he was going deaf long before then.[113] As of 2018, he has been keeping fit by spending a half hour in the swimming pool every morning;[114] he has been able to stand for six hours at the easel.[107]
Hockney hassynaesthetic associations between sound, colour and shape.[115]
Many of Hockney's works are housed in the 1853 Gallery atSalts Mill inSaltaire, near his hometown of Bradford. Another large group of works are held by The David Hockney Foundation. His work is in numerous public and private collections worldwide, including:
In 1967, Hockney's paintingPeter Getting Out of Nick's Pool won theJohn Moores Painting Prize at theWalker Art Gallery in Liverpool. In 1983, theHamburg-basedAlfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Hockney its annualShakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work. He was offered aknighthood in 1990 but declined it, before accepting anOrder of Merit in January 2012.[117] He was awarded TheRoyal Photographic Society's Progress medal in 1988[118] and the Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2003.[119][120] He was made aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1997[121] and awarded The Cultural Award from theGerman Society for Photography (DGPh).[122] He is aRoyal Academician.[123]
In 2012, he was appointed to theOrder of Merit, an honour restricted to 24 members at any one time for their contributions to the arts and sciences.[33][124] He was a Distinguished Honoree of the National Arts Association, Los Angeles, in 1991 and received the First Annual Award of Achievement from theArchives of American Art, Los Angeles, in 1993. He was appointed to the board of trustees of the American Associates of the Royal Academy Trust, New York in 1992 and was given a Foreign Honorary Membership to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1997. In 2003, Hockney was awarded the Lorenzo de' Medici Lifetime Career Award of the Florence Biennale, Italy.[125] Commissioned by The Other Art Fair, a November 2011 poll of 1,000 British painters and sculptors declared him Britain's most influential artist of all time.[126] In 2012, Hockney was among theBritish cultural icons selected by artist SirPeter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires.[127]
He is an honorary member of thePrintmakers Council.[128]
On 21 June 2006, Hockney's paintingThe Splash sold for £2.6 million.[129] It was offered for auction again on 11 February 2020, with an estimate of £20–30 million[130] and sold, to an unknown buyer, for £23.1 million.[131]
HisA Bigger Grand Canyon, a series of 60 canvases that combined to produce one enormous picture, was bought by theNational Gallery of Australia for $4.6 million.
Beverly Hills Housewife (1966–67), a 12-foot-long acrylic that depicts the collectorBetty Freeman standing by her pool in a long hot-pink dress, sold for $7.9 million atChristie's in New York in 2008, the top lot of the sale and a record price for a Hockney.[5] This was topped in 2016 when hisWoldgate Woods landscape made £9.4 million at auction.[132] The record was broken again in 2018 with the sale ofPiscine de Medianoche (Paper Pool 30) for $11.74 million and then doubled in the same Sotheby's auction whenPacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica sold for $28.5 million.[133]
On 15 November 2018, David Hockney's 1972 paintingPortrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold at Christie's for $90.3 million with fees, surpassing the previousauction record for a living artist of $58.4 million, held byJeff Koons for one of hisBalloon Dog sculptures.[134] He had originally sold this painting for $20,000 in 1972.[9]
In recent years, David Hockney's iPad drawings have become the most successful segment of his print market. Since the initial release of the Arrival of Spring in Woldgate series, prices have increased from roughly £19,000 in 2014 up to the current auction record of £340,200 in 2022.[135]
In the 2001 television programme and bookSecret Knowledge, Hockney posited that theOld Masters usedcamera obscura as well ascamera lucida and lens techniques that projected the image of the subject onto the surface of the painting. Hockney argues that this technique migrated gradually from Northern Europe to Italy, and is the reason for the photographic style of painting seen in theRenaissance and later periods of art. He published his conclusions in the 2001 bookSecret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, which was revised in 2006.[5]
Like his father, Hockney was a conscientious objector and worked as a medical orderly in hospitals during hisNational Service, 1957–1959.[136] David Hockney was a founder of theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1979.[29] He was on the advisory board of the political magazineStandpoint;[137] he contributed original sketches for its launch edition in June 2008,[138] as well as agreeing to allowStandpoint to publish his previous views and pictures over the years.[139]
He is a staunch pro-tobacco campaigner. In 2005 he fought to stop the ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants. At the Labour Party conference he held up a card saying "DEATH awaits you all even if you do smoke".[140] He was invited to guest-edit BBC Radio'sToday programme on 29 December 2009 in which he aired his views on the subject.[141] In 2013 he wrote a foreword and provided illustrations for a book by John Staddon,Unlucky Strike.
In October 2010, he and a hundred other artists signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport,Jeremy Hunt, protesting against cutbacks in the arts.[142]
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In 1966, while working on a series of etchings based on love poems by the Greek poetConstantine P. Cavafy, Hockney starred in a documentary by filmmakerJames Scott, entitledLove's Presentation.[144] He was the subject of Jack Hazan's 1974 biopic,A Bigger Splash, named after Hockney's 1967pool painting of the same name.[145] Hockney was also the inspiration of artist Billy Pappas in the documentary filmWaiting for Hockney (2008), which debuted at theTribeca Film Festival in 2008.[146]
Hockney was inducted intoVanity Fair's International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame in 1986.[147] In 2005,Burberry creative directorChristopher Bailey centred his entire spring/summer menswear collection around the artist and in 2012, fashion designerVivienne Westwood, a close friend, named a checked jacket after Hockney.[148] In 2011, BritishGQ named him one of the 50 Most Stylish Men in Britain and in March 2013, he was listed as one of the Fifty Best-dressed Over-50s byThe Guardian.[149]
Hockney was commissioned to design the cover and pages for the December 1985 issue of the French edition ofVogue. Consistent with his interest incubism and admiration forPablo Picasso, Hockney chose to paintCelia Birtwell (who appears in several of his works) from different views for the cover, as if the eye had scanned her face diagonally.David Hockney: A Rake's Progress (2012) is a biography of Hockney covering the years 1937–1975, by writer/photographer Christopher Simon Sykes.[150]
In 2012, Hockney featured inBBC Radio 4's list ofThe New Elizabethans to mark thediamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Hockney among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character".[151] The 2015Luca Guadagnino's filmA Bigger Splash was named after Hockney's painting.[152] In 2022, he was portrayed by Laurence Fuller in the 7th episode of the 1st season ofMinx.
InBoJack Horseman, a caricature ofPortrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) hangs on the wall of the title character's home office. In this version, horses replace the two human figures of the original.[153]
The David Hockney Foundation — both the UK registered charity 1127262 and the US 501(c)(3) private operating foundation — was created by the artist in 2008. In 2012, Hockney, worth an estimated $55.2 million (approx. £36.1 m), transferred paintings valued at $124.2 million (approx. £81.5 m) to the David Hockney Foundation, and gave an additional $1.2 million (approx. £0.79 m) in cash to help fund the foundation's operations.[154]
The foundation's mission is to advance appreciation and understanding of visual art and culture through the exhibition, preservation, and publication of David Hockney's work. Richard Benefield, who organisedDavid Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition in 2013–2014 at thede Young Museum inSan Francisco, became the first executive director in January 2017.[155]
The foundation owns over 8,000 works – paintings, drawings, watercolours, complete editioned prints, stage design, multi-camera movies, and other media. They also hold 203 sketchbooks and Hockney's personal photo albums from 1961 to 1990. The foundation manages various loans to museums and exhibitions around the world, includingHappy Birthday, Mr. Hockney! at theGetty celebrating his 80th birthday, and the retrospective exhibitions of 2017–2018 at theMetropolitan Museum,Centre Georges Pompidou, andTate Britain.
In October 2016Taschen publishedDavid Hockney: A Bigger Book, costing £1,750 (£3,500 with an added loose print). The artist curated the selection of more than 60 years of his work reproduced within 498 pages. The book, weighing 78 lbs, had gone through 19 proof stages.[107] The book came with an (optional) substantial wooden lectern. He unveiled the book at theFrankfurt Book Fair where he was the keynote speaker at the opening press conference.[157]ISBN 978-3-8365-0787-5
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