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David Hockney /

By: Contributor(s): Publisher: London : Thames & Hudson,Copyright date: ©1976Description: 312 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cmISBN:
  • 0500091080
  • 9780500091081
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • N6797.H57 S7 1976
Review: 'The most remarkable autobiographical work any artist, scientist or man of letters of his generation has written.' Nicholas Phillipson, Times Literary Supplement. 'Hockney tells us in a wonderfully straightforward way about what triggered off most of the paintings and many of the graphics reproduced in this book, and it's so brilliant and clear.an account of how his art becomes inextricably involved with life that it amounts to a genuine breakthrough in communication.' Robert Melville, New Statesman. Born in 1937, David Hockney is one of the most popular and successful of living artists. His paintings of California, such as A Bigger Splash (which was used as the title of the controversial feature film - partly fictitious - of his life and work), have become classics of popular imagery. Colourful, frank and decided in his views, he has been lionized by the fashionable wherever he happens to be, and he has become a cult, figure for the young. Recently, his sets and costumes for the Glyndebourne production of Stravinsky's Rake's Progress were enthusiastically acclaimed and, once again, brought him into the limelight of artistic and public attention. And yet, despite all this, Hockney has always remained a totally serious artist. Dedicated, hard-working and private, he has shown an astonishing ability to turn his back on all the fuss, and remain completely unaffected by it. His work shows an extraordinary capacity for renewal and invention, for unexpected new departures. In this witty, candid and revealing account of himself, which is in the tradition of Cellini's Autobiography, he tells of his early years in Bradford, where he was born and grew up, and first went to art school; his years at the Royal College of Art, during which he had his breakthrough and first came to public attention; his sojourn in California, which inspired his best-known paintings, drawings and prints; and his present phase in Paris, where he now lives, and where a recent exhibition at the Louvre established him as a 'Continental master'. What makes this book so fascinating is not only that the entire text is by Hockney himself - so that his life-story is given maximum documentation - but also that it reproduces almost all his paintings and graphic work to date, as well as many of his drawings. In this respect, the book amounts to an oeuvre catalogue, although its structure follows the narrative of Hockney's text and is relatively informal. The story, presented in more or less chronological form, is informative and humorous, full of descriptions of his work, anecdotes about himself, other artists and friends, his thoughts about art, and his ambiguous relationship with abstract and other current art styles. Above all, it is the story not so much of someone who has achieved something and who is happy to rest there, but of an artist who is ceaselessly striving to improve his art, and to learn how to interpret the world around him through his artistry and imagination.
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Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Whitecliffe Library General Shelves General N 6797 HOC (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 0001172

Includes index.

'The most remarkable autobiographical work any artist, scientist or man of letters of his generation has written.' Nicholas Phillipson, Times Literary Supplement. 'Hockney tells us in a wonderfully straightforward way about what triggered off most of the paintings and many of the graphics reproduced in this book, and it's so brilliant and clear.an account of how his art becomes inextricably involved with life that it amounts to a genuine breakthrough in communication.' Robert Melville, New Statesman. Born in 1937, David Hockney is one of the most popular and successful of living artists. His paintings of California, such as A Bigger Splash (which was used as the title of the controversial feature film - partly fictitious - of his life and work), have become classics of popular imagery. Colourful, frank and decided in his views, he has been lionized by the fashionable wherever he happens to be, and he has become a cult, figure for the young. Recently, his sets and costumes for the Glyndebourne production of Stravinsky's Rake's Progress were enthusiastically acclaimed and, once again, brought him into the limelight of artistic and public attention. And yet, despite all this, Hockney has always remained a totally serious artist. Dedicated, hard-working and private, he has shown an astonishing ability to turn his back on all the fuss, and remain completely unaffected by it. His work shows an extraordinary capacity for renewal and invention, for unexpected new departures. In this witty, candid and revealing account of himself, which is in the tradition of Cellini's Autobiography, he tells of his early years in Bradford, where he was born and grew up, and first went to art school; his years at the Royal College of Art, during which he had his breakthrough and first came to public attention; his sojourn in California, which inspired his best-known paintings, drawings and prints; and his present phase in Paris, where he now lives, and where a recent exhibition at the Louvre established him as a 'Continental master'. What makes this book so fascinating is not only that the entire text is by Hockney himself - so that his life-story is given maximum documentation - but also that it reproduces almost all his paintings and graphic work to date, as well as many of his drawings. In this respect, the book amounts to an oeuvre catalogue, although its structure follows the narrative of Hockney's text and is relatively informal. The story, presented in more or less chronological form, is informative and humorous, full of descriptions of his work, anecdotes about himself, other artists and friends, his thoughts about art, and his ambiguous relationship with abstract and other current art styles. Above all, it is the story not so much of someone who has achieved something and who is happy to rest there, but of an artist who is ceaselessly striving to improve his art, and to learn how to interpret the world around him through his artistry and imagination.

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