For David Hockney, Looking Was Living
The artist’s innovative use of painting, Polaroids and iPad drawings helped define modern visual culture and queer imagery.
- Renowned British artist David Hockney died last week at age 88, prompting the Prime Minister and King to release statements praising his artistic achievements and contributions to art.
- Through his famous paintings of swimming pools, Hockney shaped perceptions of California, desire, and luxury in the second half of the 20th Century, defining an era's visual imagination.
- Questioning whether conventional perspective or photography accurately reflected human perception, the artist utilized diverse media including painting, Polaroids, and iPad drawings throughout his career.
- Born in Yorkshire, Hockney came out as gay while a student in Britain, embedding queer desire within his early work as a 'cheeky wink' to viewers able to read between the lines.
- Producing works like 'Path Through Wheat Field' until his final years, the artist maintained a simple philosophy, writing in 2020: 'I love life.
14 Articles
14 Articles
For decades, the contemporary art market and galleries treated David Hockney as the great hedonist of his generation.His canvases broke records in auction houses, making him one of the most valued living artists in the world, perhaps an ambassador of pop optimism and Californian opulence.However, behind the facade of the British boy with round lenses and silvery hair that L.A. conquered, he operated a different mechanism, much more taciturn and …
For David Hockney, Looking Was Living
The British have a term for people like David Hockney: national treasure. It’s an informal title reserved for people who achieve success so substantial that their name becomes synonymous with the nation’s identity. When Hockney died last week, both the Prime Minister and the King released statements praising his achievements and contributions to art. Hockney’s most famous paintings depict the swimming pools of California; later works show the ch…
The only way to ‘see’ a landscape is by being busy making a painting, David Hockney believed, after he had blown his mind with Andy Warhol and Dennis Hopper.
David Hockney, RIP: See the Evolution of His Pop-Art Swimming-Pool Masterpiece A Bigger Splash (1967)
In a way, it always made sense that one of the most memorable visual distillations of Southern California life would have been painted by an Englishman. The purest appreciation for the wide-open lifestyle choices, freestyle built environment, unrepentant private wealth, and high-wattage sunshine of Los Angeles — especially as it was exaggerated, and indeed mythologized, in mid-twentieth century popular culture — could only be felt by someone fro…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 34% of the sources lean Left, 33% of the sources are Center, 33% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
