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STANDARDS
Core Art Standards: VA3, VA5, VA10
CCSS: R3, R4, W2
Tech Savvy
How do new innovations inspire David Hockney?
David Hockney, Telephone Pole, Los Angeles, Sept. 1982, 1982. Photographic collage. Edition of 15. ©David Hockney. Photo: Richard Schmidt.
How does this work mimic the way we really see?
Not long ago, David Hockney commented that some people criticize his work for being “all over the place.” But the artist rejects that assessment. “I’ve always been consistent,” he says. This is clear in his career-long exploration of how we see the world—and of new technologies to help him do so. Whether achieved with paint on canvas or with the latest technology, space and place are central themes in Hockney’s work.
Camera-Ready
Early in his career, Hockney often took photographs to plan his paintings. One day he noticed that the arrangements of photos could be just as interesting as the paintings, so he began making photo collages. At first, he put them together as a grid. Then he started placing the images so they overlapped. Hockney said the result was “much closer to the way we actually look at things.”
Notice how Hockney’s 1982 Telephone Pole, above, is an irregular shape, inviting the viewer’s eye to dart around the scene. It is widest in the middle—at eye level. As the eye travels up toward the top of the telephone pole, the composition becomes narrower, mimicking the way the pole itself recedes as it rises upward. Hockney even includes part of his sneakers at the bottom, literally placing the viewer in his shoes.
David Hockney, The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 8 January, 2011. Edition of 25. iPad drawing printed on paper. ©David Hockney. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 30 March, 2011. Edition of 25. iPad drawing printed on paper. ©David Hockney. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 31 May, No. 2, 2011. Edition of 25. iPad drawing printed on paper. ©David Hockney.
How does Hockney draw the viewer’s eye deep into these landscapes?
Time and Space
The first iPhone was released in 2007. Hockney got one in 2008 and soon began using the Brushes app to draw. A few years later, he bought an iPad. Unlike a heavy easel, canvas, and paints, a tablet is easy to carry into the woods. Hockney soon created more than 100 iPad works en plein air—or outside—capturing the arrival of spring in East Yorkshire, England, where he was living.
Hockney explores space in his 2011 iPad drawings of East Yorkshire, three of which are shown above. The roads guide the viewer deep into each scene. But these works, when viewed together, are also about time. How does the artist show this place transforming with the seasons?
For Hockney, the iPad is a versatile tool. He uses it to plan new paintings, as a medium for making prints, and as an art form itself. Sometimes he displays iPads showing digital animations of his works in progress as he drew them.
David Hockney, Reading in the Studio, 2015. Edition of 25. Photographic drawing printed on paper, mounted on Dibond. ©David Hockney.
What techniques does Hockney use to make this collage feel like a single image?
Back to the Beginning
To create his 2015 Reading in the Studio, above, Hockney took a series of digital photos of each object and figure. Then he digitally collaged them together to create a single multi-viewpoint image. In works like these, which Hockney calls photographic drawings, the figures appear to have volume and form. And he creates a sense of place through harmony of color and light.
The technology Hockney uses in this work is more advanced, but the process is similar to works like Telephone Pole. And like including his shoes at the bottom of the earlier example, he leaves an open book and a place at the table for the viewer. Can you imagine yourself turning the page?
