Working en plein air
Early in the year, at a John Constable retrospective at Tate Britain, Hockney is impressed by the scale of the British master’s oil sketches. Upon returning to Bridlington, he explores painting the East Yorkshire landscape en plein air in oil. Having done many single canvas works, he turns his attention to a more expansive scale, which he achieves by combining canvases to depict a single scene across a grid of two, four, or six canvases.
At first we had to go out with several cars so that returning we could lay out the wet canvases on the back seats without smudging them. Eventually we built a sort of rack in the back of the truck with six shelves, so we could transport all six canvases at once, even if all of them were wet. It’s like I always say: You’ve got to really prepare if you’re going to try to be spontaneous.
At Annely Juda in London in September, he exhibits his East Yorkshire landscapes, from the single-canvas sketches to the large-scaled assemblages. “Annely Juda’s show of the new landscapes indicates that, if anything, David Hockney is having yet another flowering. In a long career, he has frequently seemed to have reached a peak, only to dart off at a tangent and, in another style, another medium, surpass himself. His most recent work shows a serene, soaring mastery,” writes Sarah Howgate in the Times.
Portrait retrospective
A major portrait exhibition starts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and travels to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery in London before year’s end. An overview of Hockney’s career that chronicles his public and intimate relationships in more than 250 works, it testifies to his stylistic inventiveness over the five decades.
Exhibitions
Solo
- David Hockney Portraits, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA (Feb 26–May 14), travels to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Jun 11–Sep 4) and National Portrait Gallery, London (Oct 12, 2006–Jan 21, 2007); catalogue.
- David Hockney Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Jun 11–Sep 4); catalogue.
- David Hockney: From Bradford to Hollywood & Back Again, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK (Jul 29–Nov 5).
- A Year in Yorkshire, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK (Sep 15–Oct 28); catalogue.
- David Hockney Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (Oct 12, 2006–Jan 21, 2007); catalogue.
Group
- Los Angeles 1955–1985: Naissance d’une capitale artistique, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (Mar 8–Jul 17); catalogue.
- Hogarth, Hockney and Stravinsky: A Rake’s Progress, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (May 16–Jul 23); catalogue.
- Yosemite: Art of An American Icon, Part II, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Nov 10, 2006–Apr 22, 2007), travels to Oakland Museum of California (May 19–Awp 2, 2007); Nevada Museum of Art, Reno (Oct 13, 2007–Jan 13, 2008); Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis (Mar 22–Aug 9, 2008); catalogue.
Publications
Publications
- A Rake’s Progress, Rex Irwin Gallery, Woollahra, Australia: Editions Alecto and Royal College of Art.
- David Hockney Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London.
- David Hockney: A Year in Yorkshire, Annely Juda Fine Art, London.
- David Hockney: New Ways of Seeing, Gustav-Lubcke-Museum Hamm, Hamburg: Stadt Hamm. Gustav Lubcke Museum.