David Hockney

This concise volume illustrates around 40 acrylic on canvas works painted by David Hockney (born 1937) at his Normandy studio—depicting his friends and visitors, as well as the artist himself. David Hockney: Normandy Portraits showcases a series of some previously unseen portraits, across 48 pages, uninterrupted by text, to allow readers to engage directly with the artworks.
These new works highlight the ongoing importance of portraiture within the artist’s practice and demonstrate his sentiment that "drawings and paintings … are a lot better than photographs to give you a sense of the person."
Hockney returned to painting after an intensive period spent depicting the Normandy landscape using an iPad. The portraits were painted quickly and directly onto the canvas without underdrawing. As Hockney has said, "to do a portrait slowly is a bit of a contradiction."
David Hockney (born 1937) is one of the most significant British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. He attended the Royal College of Art in London and exhibited in one of the first British Pop art shows. In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for many years before returning to his native Yorkshire for a time. In addition to painting, Hockney has pursued photography, collage and printmaking, as well as digital illustration. He lives and works in Normandy, France.

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At the beginning of 2020, just as global COVID-19 restrictions were coming into force, David Hockney was at his new house, studio and garden in Normandy. From there, he witnessed the arrival of spring, and recorded the blossoming of the surrounding landscape on his iPad, a method of drawing he has been using for over a decade.

Drawing outdoors was an antidote to the anxiety of the moment for Hockney; “we need art, and I do think it can relieve stress,” he says. This uplifting publication—produced to accompany a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts—includes 116 of these new iPad drawings and shows to full effect Hockney's singular skill in capturing the exuberance of nature. The book begins with an interview with the show's curator, Edith Devaney, in which Hockney discusses his heralding of the spring. It also features augmented reality, an exciting technology that enables smartphones and tablets to recognize printed images and play a related film or animation.

David Hockney (born 1937) is one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. He attended the Royal College of Art in London and exhibited in one of the first British Pop art shows. In 1964 he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for many years before returning to his native Yorkshire for a time. In addition to painting, Hockney has pursued photography, collage and printmaking as well as digital illustration. He lives and works in Normandy, France.

Published to accompany a major international exhibition, David Hockney: Drawing from Life features Hockney’s drawings from the 1950s to the present day, and focuses on his depictions of himself and a small group of sitters close to him: his muse, Celia Birtwell; his mother, Laura Hockney; and his friends, the curator, Gregory Evans, and master printer, Maurice Payne. In his portrait drawings of these figures, Hockney tries out new stylistic experiments and expresses his admiration for his artistic predecessors, from Holbein to Picasso.

Featuring 150 beautifully reproduced works from public and private collections across the world, this publication traces the trajectory of Hockney’s drawing practice by examining how he has revisited these five figures throughout his career. Highlights include a series of new portraits, colored pencil drawings created in Paris in the early 1970s, composite Polaroid portraits from the 1980s and a selection of drawings from an intense period of self-scrutiny during the 1980s when the artist created a self-portrait every day for two months.

David Hockney (born 1937) is considered one of the most celebrated British contemporary artists. Hockney studied at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal College of Art with R.B. Kitaj, Allen Jones and Derek Boshier. Graduating with a gold medal, he became a leading figure in pop art. His work encompasses drawing, painting, printmaking, photography and stage design.

Following his sweeping exploration of landscape in 2012 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, published in the phe­nomenally successful David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, this new volume looks exclusively at a new series of portraits that David Hockney, one of the most famous artists in the world, has been painting recently. In 2012, Hockney returned to California, where he had lived and worked for long periods. There followed a series of painted portraits, the subjects of which ranged from studio assistants and office staff to family, friends, and long-term acquaintances. Also included are a number of fellow artists, curators, and gallerists, including John Baldessari and Larry Gagosian. Reproduced in stunning colorplates the paintings are shown alongside revealing images of the works in various stages of development, which provide an exciting insight into Hockney’s painterly process. The book is introduced with two important new texts. This vivid series of portraits, executed in bold acrylics, observant and full of life, marks Hockney’s vibrant return to Technicolor form.