The Halcyon Gallery is currently presenting a comprehensive collection of works by one of Britain’s most celebrated artists - David Hockney - at 148 New Bond Street until 31st December. Spanning six decades of his illustrious career, the works date from 1967 to 2018, and include his iconic pool images, self-portraits, portraits of friends, still lifes and landscapes.
Hockney’s power is in his virtuosity as a draftsman and colourist and his appreciation for the everyday. He paints the world around him with bright, bold colours and a restless desire to experiment, epitomising the American modernist Philip Guston’s definition of art as ‘serious play’.
As an artist, Hockney has always embraced the latest technological innovations. In the 1980’s he harnessed photocopy machines as part of his practice and, more recently, the iPad, which he uses to capture the world as he sees it - through the technicolour guise of the digital age. Visitors will discover various iPad drawings, providing a rich insight into his unique exploration of this new medium. Living in Colour will also display Hockney’s activity in the medium of photographic collage, an area of his oeuvre that is sometimes overlooked but in which he was pioneering, experimenting with unique perspectives and compositions.
"In art, new ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling; you can't divorce the two, as, we are aware, you cannot have time without space and space without time."
David Hockney
The exhibition provides a window into Hockney’s personal life: views of his studios, household objects, portraits of friends, family and his beloved dachshunds - these works document his life and travels from Yorkshire to California.
Visitors will discover works from the Moving Focus series, which is perhaps his most ambitious and experimental output of prints, consisting of portraits, landscapes, interiors, and still lifes. Through this body of work, the artist explored unconventional methods of articulating space, as if the subject is captured from multiple viewpoints, rendering his sitters with an electric feeling of dynamism.
These works are notable as a demonstration of his masterful use of colour and as a pure expression of Pablo Picasso’s impact on his work. Hockney acknowledges this impact in two pieces that he created in 1973, which hang in the exhibition. In The Student, Homage to Picasso and Artist and Model, the artist represents himself confronting his idol, the pioneer of cubism.
Another major influence in Hockney’s career is Vincent van Gogh, whom he acknowledges throughout his oeuvre, particularly in Van Gough Chair (1998). This piece was created in direct homage to the post-impressionist who painted the same subject exactly 100 years earlier. Van Gogh's Chair with Pipe (1888) is currently on display at the National Gallery in London.
Hockney’s pools are some of the most memorable images of the 20th century – visitors will find a number on display - with iridescent pools, complete with sharp geometry, that illicit an irresistible temptation to dive in. Created whilst living in LA, these works have come to symbolise the exuberance and sense of freedom associated with the city.
Visit the Halcyon Gallery at 148 New Bond Street until 31st December to discover the exhibition yourself.