A major new exhibition of works from one of Britain’s greatest living painters, David Hockney, opened this week at the LA Louver gallery in Venice and runs through September 19th.
Developed by the Yorkshire-born Hockney over the past two years in his Los Angeles studio, the new works explore the relationship between painting and photography, the artist’s interest in depicting perspective, as well as his fascination with using new technology to create images.
“Painters have always known there is something wrong with perspective. The problem is the foreground and the vanishing point… Well not now. Digital photography can free us from a chemically imposed perspective that has lasted for 180 years,” he said of his latest work.
Now 77 years of age, Hockney continues to work at a feverish pace since his 2013 return from Bridlington, Yorkshire, where he spent almost a decade painting the changing landscapes of North Yorkshire. The photographs in the exhibition, described by Hockney as “photographic drawings,” are comprised of hundreds of images, all captured at close range. The collection of digital images is then seamlessly stitched together and enhanced to construct a singular composition, but with multiple vanishing points. This approach echoes Hockney’s earlier photographic collages that used processed film prints, one of the most recognized being the famous Pearblossom Hwy.
“Ordinary photography is too flat,” the artist told the Guardian earlier this year. “If you look, the eye is always moving. If it isn’t, you’re dead. This means there are hundreds of vanishing points not just one.”
And in an interview with the Los Angeles Times recently Hockney said he was having his most productive period in two decades. A big reason, he said, was a trip to New York last autumn where he took in Picasso shows, the Met’s major Cubism show and the Matisse Cut-outs at the Museum of Modern Art.
“I came back absolutely thrilled with what I saw,” he said. “We came back on a Sunday, and on Monday morning I was painting away. I realised Picasso worked every day. That’s what you must do.”
Hockney spent eight productive years in Bridlington, culminating in the blockbuster Royal Academy A Bigger Picture exhibition in 2012, but he left left the UK in the summer of 2013, following the death of studio assistant Dominic Elliott. An inquest found Elliott died after drinking drain cleaner at the end of a drink and drugs binge. The year before Hockney had a stroke and a beautiful tree which featured in many of the works was felled and then sprayed in red graffiti. “It is something that has made me depressed,” he said at the time. “It was just a spite. There are loads of very mean things here now in Britain.”
Hockney recently said he had no plans to retire, but gave another clue to the motivation behind his current studio-based work when he said: “I hardly go out now because I’m too deaf. Most of the time, if you go out, it’s to listen to something, and I’m not good at listening now. I can’t hear music anymore. I can’t hear the high notes, and I can’t hear the low notes. It’s gone for me now, music.”
Painting and Photography marks Hockney’s 16th solo exhibition at L.A. Louver since 1978. A fully illustrated catalogue, designed by the artist, has been published on the occasion of the exhibition.
The artist will also be giving a Artist Lecture at The Getty Museum in September, drawing on his life-long interests to present his latest, and ever-evolving, theories about perspective and the relationships between painting and photography. This must-see event for art lovers is scheduled for Thursday, 10th September at 7pm at The Getty Center. For reservations and more information, please visit www.getty.edu
LA Louver is located at 45 North Venice Boulevard, Venice, California. For more information visit www.lalouver.com
