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Issue Number: 92
Richard Cork meets David Hockney in the rolling hills of the artist’s native Yorkshire, where he has been finding new inspiration
Ever since David Hockney RA moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, California has been his preferred home. So it is astonishing to discover that he is now based in Bridlington, a quiet Yorkshire coastal resort defiantly stuck in a pre-war time-capsule. Greeting me there in a large 1920s house near the seafront, he explains that his mother used to live there. She died seven years ago at the age of 99, and now Hockney has settled in, building himself a capacious, light-filled studio right at the top.
David Hockney RA, Wheat Field near Fridaythorpe, August 2005
After leading me up there with abundant energy, the spry 69-year-old artist lights one of his beloved Camel cigarettes and explains why Yorkshire, the county where he was born, has now captured his imagination. ‘Here I have a sense of place,’ he says with a smile. ‘Fifty years ago I actually worked on the land around Bridlington, stooking corn for the harvest on the farms. I cycled round and realised how beautiful it all was. It’s ravishing, and there’s no one in it.’
Hockney’s rapt response to the East Yorkshire terrain has intensified so much that he is now painting in the open air, creating immense multi-part landscapes. ‘I’ve been working here since last July, all through the winter cold, when you have to kit yourself out like the Michelin Man to do it,’ he explains. ‘I always knew I would find what I was looking for, but I thought it would be in LA. Now I love the spatial thrill here. The camera doesn’t see space, but we do, so I prefer working outside, even on the big oils. I sit in a chair and look at the landscape for a couple of hours before painting begins.’
The results are spectacular and some of the 80 pictures will be shown in London at the Annely Juda Gallery in mid-September. A month later, a large retrospective of Hockney’s portraits opens at the National Portrait Gallery. ‘Landscapes and portraits: what else is there?’ he asks. ‘Trees in the winter are all individual, just as no face is like another. When I painted Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy [opposite] in the early 1970s, they came to pose, but I also worked from photos a lot and the whole picture took six months. Now I paint from life, very quickly, and I only do portraits of friends and people I know.’
Hockney is also bringing out a new, expanded edition of his fiercely debated book, Secret Knowledge, where he argues that the Old Masters often relied on a wide range of optical devices. ‘I was shocked by art historians’ reactions to the book,’ he says, ‘but artists were always dealing with optical projections of nature. I’ve now made more discoveries and added them to the new edition, looking at Brunelleschi’s panel of the Baptistery in Florence and unravelling Caravaggio’s working methods. I’ve also found evidence of camera-drawing in landscapes painted by Girtin, Sandby and Cotman, many of them working in the Yorkshire countryside.’
My time with Hockney comes to a memorable climax when he drives me, in an open-top Mini-Cooper, around the landscapes he has been painting with such obsessive devotion. Towards sunset, at the end of a heatwave day, the empty rolling hills and little valleys are a revelation. ‘They’re hidden and nobody knows they’re there,’ he exclaims, ‘but they’re incredibly beautiful.’
David Hockney – A Year in Yorkshire: New Paintings, Annely Juda Fine Art, London (020 7629 7578), 15 Sep–28 Oct; David Hockney: Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London (020 7306 0055), 12 Oct–21 Jan; New and expanded paperback edition of Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by David Hockney (Thames & Hudson, £24.95)
Richard Cork
© RA Magazine
