David Hockney unveils new drawings of his close friends in new exhibition
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 5, 2024


David Hockney unveils new drawings of his close friends in new exhibition
Hockney has always communicated through drawing; the sittings allow an intimacy and closeness with the subject that cannot be achieved so readily with the bravura of the painted portrait. © David Parry and National Portrait Gallery.



LONDON.- New portraits of David Hockney’s close friends – textile designer, Celia Birtwell; his business manager and curator Gregory Evans, and master printer, Maurice Payne – have gone on public display for the first time in a major new exhibition, David Hockney: Drawing from Life, opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London on Thursday 27 February.

Inspired by the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, which explores Hockney as a draughtsman from the 1950s to now by focusing on his depictions of himself and a small group of his closest sitters, Hockney invited his friends to sit for him once more for a new series of drawings – ten of which are on display in the exhibition. Drawn in Los Angeles and Normandy in 2019, the three-quarter length portraits are fond evocations of time spent together and represent the familiar faces and different expressions of his old friends, informed by all the sittings they have done previously. In the works, Hockney uses the walnut-brown coloured ink favoured by Rembrandt, achieving an uninterrupted continuous line.

Hockney has always communicated through drawing; the sittings allow an intimacy and closeness with the subject that cannot be achieved so readily with the bravura of the painted portrait. Fifty years after Celia Birtwell sat for Hockney for the first time in Paris, the artist invited his lifelong friend to Normandy on two occasions in August and November 2019, to sit for him again. The new works reflect his subject’s vitality and engaging personality, characteristics the artist has always been attracted to.

Gregory Evans has been an intimate friend of Hockney’s for fifty years, his consistent model, assistant, and now his curator and business manager. Sittings for the new portraits took place in Hockney’s Los Angeles studio in June 2019.

Maurice Payne, master printer, and friend of Hockney’s since the late 1960s has collaborated with him on several major etching projects, as well as being the subject of many of the artist’s portraits. The new portraits were drawn in Los Angeles in December last year.

David Hockney: Drawing from Life is the first major exhibition devoted to David Hockney’s drawings in over twenty years, featuring around 150 works from public and private collections across the world, as well as from the David Hockney Foundation and the artist. The intimate portraits of himself, his mother, Laura Hockney; and friends Celia Birtwell, Gregory Evans, and Maurice Payne are rendered in pencil, pastel, ink and watercolour, using both traditional and non-traditional drawing equipment including coloured pencil, pen, the Polaroid camera and apps found on the iPhone and iPad.

Hockney is recognised as one of the master draughtsmen of our times and a champion of the medium. David Hockney: Drawing from Life examines not only how drawing is fundamental to the artist’s distinctive way of observing the world around him, but also how it has often been a testing ground for ideas and modes of expression later played out in his paintings. Over the past fifty years, the artist’s experimentation with drawing has taken many different stylistic turns. The portrait drawings reveal his admiration for both the old masters and modern masters from Holbein to Matisse. The influence of Ingres can be seen in Hockney’s neo-Classical style line drawings of the 1970s and the ‘camera lucida’ drawings of the late 1990s. In the 1980s he used composite Polaroids to ‘draw with the camera’, as he described it, creating Cubist depictions of form which paid homage to Picasso. In more recent years, Hockney has returned to the distinctive mark making of Rembrandt and van Gogh.










Today's News

February 26, 2020

David Hockney unveils new drawings of his close friends in new exhibition

Andrew Jones Auctions' first-ever auction of Collections Curated by Designers of Distinction totals under $2M

Auction House Aguttes announces a rediscovered masterpiece by Sanyu

Convenience, fun and top names tempt a new generation of collectors at Palm Beach Modern Auctions

Smithsonian releases 2.8 million free images for broader public use

Clyfford Still canvas leads the Collection of Harry W. & Mary Margaret Anderson at Sotheby's this May

See $100 million of historic rare coins, Georgia gold and "funny money" in Atlanta

Opera star Domingo apologizes as union probe confirms 'inappropriate activity'

Dulwich Picture Gallery opens an ambitious and wide-spanning survey of the origins of surrealist art in Britain

Exhibition offers an overview of Natalia Goncharova's work from the first four decades of the 20th century

Dallas Museum of Art presents two portraits by 17th-century Dutch painter Frans Hals

Auschwitz Memorial upset over scene in new Amazon series 'Hunters'

Hindman continues to expand nationwide with new locations in San Diego and Washington D.C.

Kehrer Verlag publishes 'Reconciliation' by S. Billie Mandle

Taft Deputy Director and Chief Curator receives prestigious award from French Government

Early coastal scene by landmark Australian painter comes to auction at Ewbank's

Richard Saltoun Gallery opens Annegret Soltau's first solo exhibition with the gallery, 'Spider'

Video art production award winner Hao Jingban presents Opus One

Davis Museum names Nicole Berlin new Assistant Curator of Collections

All-star lineup of pop culture memorabilia announced for Hake's March 11-12 auction

The Menil Collection presents 'Photography and the Surreal Imagination'

Kim Jones of Dior Men & Sotheby's team up for 'Contemporary Curated' auction this March in New York

The largest solo exhibition of Tomás Saraceno's work in Italy is now open at Palazzo Strozzi

Made in Albania: carnival masks that travel the world

China sentences Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years jail

Los Angeles Audio Visual Companies Can Help Ensure an Event's Success

The artist's checklist for making an impact in 2020

How CBD Gummies Can Help You Become a Better Artist

Easy Games That You Can Make Money With Online

Basic Photo Editing in Photoshop: 10 Tips




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful