A personal touch
L.A.-based artist David Hockney portrays freedom and sensuality
in his landscapes and portraits of friends, on display at the L.A.
County Museum of Art through April 28.
By Rodney Tanaka
Daily Bruin Staff
The view of Los Angeles as seen by David Hockney includes palm
trees and swimming pools, in addition to portraits of friends and
family.
The British artist’s career spans four decades from his artistic
growth in London through his move to Los Angeles. "David Hockney: A
Drawing Retrospective," at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
through April 28, showcases approximately 150 of his drawings.
He studied at London’s Royal College of Art in the late ’50s
through the early ’60s. Hockney moved to Los Angeles in 1963 and
was taken by the lifestyle and landscape.
"His ideas of life in Southern California (were) colored very
much by the popular press, movies and television," says Victor
Carlson, the museum’s senior curator of prints and drawings. "He
really started to find himself as a mature, independent human
being, and I think the kind of lifestyle and society where people
are defined as much by how they invent themselves as what strata
they’re born into appealed to him a great deal."
Hockney’s attraction to the environment is evident in the work
it inspires.
"David Hockney captures the quintessence of Los Angeles in the
last half of this century with his beauty, freedom of expression
and funny sensuality," says David Rodes, director of the Grunwald
Center for the Graphic Arts.
The combination of freedom and sensuality results in a large
body of work dealing with the human form.
"Hockney, since his early 20s, has led an openly gay lifestyle
that is felt or expressed more profoundly in his paintings than his
drawings," Carlson says. "His whole attitude toward the figure then
begins to become colored or inflected by his sexual interest in the
human body."
A series of drawings feature Peter Schlesinger, a student that
Hockney met in 1966. In "Peter," the subject is lying on a bed with
his shirt off and his arms splayed above his head.
"The human male figure was very rarely depicted as an object of
sexual desire," Carlson adds. "Hockney makes the conscious decision
to break from this tradition of the male nude and establish his own
view of the human body which was relevant to him."
Hockney’s portraits, whether they highlight sexual interest or
his maternal connection, usually feature important people in his
life. Most portraits depict the artist’s family, friends and
contemporaries.
"He said that he really only likes to make portraits of people
he knows and feels he understands," Carlson says. "He takes the
position that if you don’t really understand someone and know them
well you can’t make an effective portrayal of them."
"Because he feels that he has to have this special in-depth
connection to the person, his portrait drawings are like anyone
else’s photograph albums of friends," Carlson says. "They are
people he knows and likes to be with, drawn sometimes very casual,
sometimes very intimate circumstances."
A drawing of Henry Geldzahler, an art critic and friend of
Hockney’s, in May, 1994, shows a portly man with arms folded in
front of him, staring straight ahead. A sketchbook, also from 1994,
shows a gaunt Geldzhaler stricken with cancer.
"Geldzahler asked Hockney to come out and see him, and said that
it would be alright for Hockney to make these drawings of him,"
Carlson says. "They have a kind of emotional punch and don’t have
that sense of holding back."
Hockney also turns his artistic eye upon himself in his
self-portraits. Two such drawings, created four days apart, utilize
different techniques and convey different moods. "Self-Portrait
26th Sept. 1983" shows a somber artist with short, blond hair in a
coat and striped shirt.
"It’s a ravishing use of drawing materials to suggest textures,
play of light on surfaces, the way texture of skin is different
from the dense fabric of his coat, which is different from the
striped shirt," Carlson says.
"Self-Portrait 30th Sept. 1983" uses sketchy lines that convey
the impression that the artist is almost leaning out of the
page.
"It’s a complicated pose to try to create because the artist’s
arm that is supporting the weight of his body extends beyond the
edge of the paper, and then his body is going back," Carlson says.
"You have his eyes staring out at you, almost examining you rather
than him. The whole construction is more complex, even though it
isn’t drawn with the technical refinement of the other."
The occasional lack of refinement in Hockney’s drawings allows
viewers to gain insight into the artistic process.
"Generally, when most artists set about making a painting, it’s
with the intention of making a finished image, a complete
statement," Carlson says. "Often artists experiment in their
drawings in a way that they don’t dare in their painting.
"When an artist is a really good draftsman who is interested in
working with draftsman’s materials, I think the most attractive
quality of a drawing is the element of spontaneity, of capturing an
idea literally as it passes through the artist’s mind," Carlson
adds. "It’s literally a different thought process than making a
painting."
Hockney’s work on display may also give viewers insight into the
personality of the artist.
"He’s a very appealing personality," Carlson says. "I think it’s
evident from the kind of portrait drawings he makes that he has a
real capacity for friendship and can form strong bonds with
people."
ART: "David Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective," at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. Open through April 28. For more info
call (213) 857-6000.
A portrait of Andy Warhol, "Andy," reflects pop culture’s
influence on David Hockney.
"Shell Garage, Luxor" is just one of the works displayed.
"Cecilia in Black Dress with Red Stockings" may feature someone
artist David Hockney knows.
"Geometric Waves" features Hockney’s interpretation of the Los
Angeles landscape.
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