David Hockney

I often need to use the search engine of my Missives (upper left) to check what I have written about before. I did so as I thought of writing about David Hockney (1937-2026). I have mentioned him often, but never written solely about the artist himself. Hockney died earlier this month, and as always happens, a slew of articles have been written about him and his work now that he is gone.

Hockney was born in Yorkshire, England, and studied, lived, and worked there until he was in his forties. In the 1960’s, he visited the United States often and even came over to teach. Then in 1978, he moved to Los Angeles. He also acquired a studio in Normandy during the last years of his life, but always kept a home in England, and that is where he died. In 1994, Prince and now King Charles III, referred to Hockney as a dear friend, and when the artist died, the BBC headline read “King leads tributes to ‘giant of the art world’ David Hockney”.

What particularly captured my attention was the headline in the New York Times in an article by Alex Marshall, “With iPhones and Faxes, David Hockney Embraced Tech”. I have dwelled on the issue of keeping up with the advances in technology, particularly in the area of the arts. This article cited Hockney’s referring back to the 19th century, when the metal paint tube suddenly allowed artists to take their paints wherever they wished to work.

While others bemoaned and feared all the advances, Hockney embraced them. He created art with the Polaroid Camera, the fax machine, photocopiers, iPads, and iPhones. I wonder how he felt about AI and how it affected his interests?

I was surprised to learn how he used faxes in his art. Apparently, he did not consider the fax the end product, but rather a vehicle to disseminate his art, sending friends images of drawings he had done. When he found that some of his faxes were in an auction sale, he objected, stating that they were made to be given away, adding, “How would I be paid?” They were sold anyway, and some have found their way into museums. The Met, for instance, has about 25 of these faxes in its collection. Here is an example that was sold in Los Angeles.

Defining Hockney’s style is not simple. Cubism had an influence, while flattened images and bright colors became staples of his work. He was certainly drawn to the bright sunlight of Southern California. Another article in the N.Y. Times by Jori Finkel is titled, “How David Hockney Taught Los Angeles to See Itself”. “A Brit, he became a symbol of the city’s culture, stylish and alienating, with his vivid swimming pool paintings and embrace of the SoCal (Southern California) light, hedonism and gay liberation.” Here are two illustrations: a photomontage Nude, 17th June 1984, and a painting, Mulholand Drive.

Finkel tells us that Hockney did not only use high tech. In 1988, he also used a broom. No, not to paint with but to put a brush on so that he could reach the bottom of a pool. The device allowed him to paint swooshes of bright blue on the bottom of the pool at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. This reminded me of half a century ago, my wife and I being stopped in the halls of the Metropolitan Museum by the head of the 20th century art department, Henry Geldzahler, who pulled out a Kodak envelope with prints from an entire roll of photographs Hockney had taken of Henry floating in a pool and Christopher, his life partner, diving in and swimming. Henry was so proud of those photos that he wanted us to see every last one of them.

Geldzahler became pivotal to the contemporary art world, having nearly daily phone calls with Andy Warhol. He also brought artists like Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, and Willem de Kooning to the fore. But he was a close friend of Hockney for many years.  Henry and Christopher were the subject of one of his greatest paintings from 1969, which brought $49.5 million in 2019 at a Christie’s London sale.

In summing up, one might say that Hockney wore a coat of many colors. He did not concern himself with the tenets of an artist’s traditional tools and methods. Instead, he enjoyed exploring all the possibilities that technology offered him.