Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

David Hockney: in California Steven Miller 28/29 June, 2017

Lecture summary: We shall not cease from our exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time

These verses from the last of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets could be used to describe ’s journey as a painter of the landscape. Born in the north of England, he moved to California in his mid-twenties and made it his base for the next 50 years. The images he painted there, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, are regarded as some of his most successful and distinctive works, ‘the extraordinary achievement’, as one critic wrote, of the ‘provincial Englishman who has created a widely accepted image of Los Angeles and has made southern Californians look with new eyes at their own environment.’ However, in recent years Hockney has become one of the most lyrical painters of his native Yorkshire landscape; a part of the world that he could not escape from quickly enough as a young artist. This lecture will focus on Hockney’s ‘splash and pool years’, where he captured the bright, modern and affluent world of Los Angeles, and explore how the works he created at this time have laid the ground for this return to his roots and the remarkable works that are making him the greatest painter of the Yorkshire landscape since Turner.

Slide list: 1. David Hockney, A bigger splash 1967, acrylic on canvas, Tate Gallery, . 2. David Hockney, Portrait of Nick Wilder 1966, acrylic on canvas, Fukuoka City Bank. 3. David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures) 1972, acrylic on canvas, Lewis collection. 3. David Hockney, Man in shower in Beverley Hills 1964, acrylic on canvas, Tate Gallery, London. 4. David Hockney, North Yorkshire 1997, oil on canvas, private collection. 5. David Hockney, The road across the Wolds 1997, oil on canvas, private collection. 6. Spencer Gore, The Icknield Way 1912, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. 7. John Constable, West end fields, Hampstead, noon c.1822, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 8. J. M. W. Turner High force, fall of the trees, Yorkshire 1816, watercolour on paper, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. 9. David Hockney, 1998, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 10. David Hockney, Double east Yorkshire 1998, oil on canvas, private collection. 11. David Hockney, A closer winter tunnel, February-March 2006, oil on 6 panels, Art Gallery of NSW, purchased 2007. 12. David Hockney, A bigger 1998, oil on 60 panels, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1999. 13. David Hockney, Peter getting out of Nick’s pool 1966, acrylic on canvas, Walker Art Gallery collection, Liverpool. Proudly sponsored by

14. David Hockney, Portrait of my father 1955, oil on canvas, collection David Hockney. 15. Walter Sickert, Flower market, Dieppe c.1898, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 16. David Hockney, Self portrait 1954, on paper, David Hockney collection. 17. David Hockney, Doll boy 1960-1, oil on canvas, private collection. 18. David Hockney, We two boys together clinging 1961, oil on board, Arts Council Collection. 19. David Hockney, Life painting for a diploma 1962, oil paint and charcoal on paper on canvas, Yageo Foundation. 20. David Hockney The diploma 1962, colour etching and aquatint, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. 21. David Hockney, Two friends 1963, oil on two canvases, collection of Frank McDonald (1964). 22. David Hockney, The second marriage 1963, oil, gouache and collage on torn wallpaper on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 23. David Hockney, Dream Inn, Santa Cruz October 1966, pencil and crayon on paper, private collection. 24. David Hockney, The room, Tarzana 1967, acrylic on canvas, private collection. 25. François Boucher, Marie-Louise O’Murphy c.1752, oil on canvas, Alte Pinakothek, Munich. 26. David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy 1968, acrylic on canvas, private collection. 27. David Hockney, Sun 1973, colour lithograph, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 28. Ed Ruscha, Hollywood 1968, colour screenprint, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 29. Ed Ruscha, Every building on the sunset strip 1966, artist book, photographs, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. 30. David Hockney, Kirby after Hogarth, useful knowledge 1975, oil on canvas, MoMa, New . 31. David Hockney, Nichols Canyon 1980, acrylic on canvas, private collection. 32. David Hockney, Living room interior with terrace 1985, colour crayons on paper, private collection. 33. David Hockney, Mulholland Drive: The road to the studio 1980, acrylic on canvas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 34. David Hockney, Pearblossom Highway 1986, photographic collage, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. 35. David Hockney, Grand Canyon south rim with rail 1982, photographic collage, private collection. 36. David Hockney, Bigger Trees near 2007, oil on 50 panels, Tate, London. 37. David Hockney, Page from a Yorkshire sketchbook 2004, watercolour on paper, collection of David Hockney.

Reference:

Hockney, David. David Hockney by David Hockney, London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. David Hockney, That’s the way I see it, London: Thames and Hudson, 1993. Lund Humphries, David Hockney: Paintings, prints and drawings 1960-1970, London: Lund Humphries, 1970. Royal Academy of Arts, David Hockney: A bigger picture, London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2012. Tate, David Hockney: Paintings and prints from 1960, Liverpool: Tate, 1993. Tuchman, Maurice and Stephanie Barron, David Hockney: A retrospective, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989. Webb, Peter. Portrait of David Hockney, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1988. Weschler, Lawrence. David Hockney: Looking at landscape, being in landscape, California: L. A. Louver, 1998 For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/