David Hockney by David Hockney

David Hockney By David Hockney

Edited by Nikos Stangos
Introductory Essay by Henry Geldzahler
Curator of Twentieth Century Art
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Born in 1937, David Hockney is one of the most popular
and successful of living artists. His paintings of Califor-
nia, such as A Bigger Splash (which was used as the title
of the controversial feature film - partly fictitious - of his
life and work), have become classics of popular imagery.
Colourful, frank and decided in his views, he has been
lionized by the fashionable wherever he happens to be,
and he has become a cult figure for the. young.
Recently, his sets and costumes for the Glyndebourne
production of Stravinsky's Rake's Progress were en-
thusiastically acclaimed and, once again, brought him
into the limelight of artistic and public attention. And
yet, despite all this, Hockney has always remained a
totally serious artist. Dedicated, hard-working and
private, he has shown an astonishing ability to turn his
back on all the fuss, and remain completely unaffected
by it. His work shows an extraordinary capacity for
renewal and invention, for unexpected new departures.
In this witty, candid and revealing account of
himself, which is in the tradition of Cellini's Autobiog-
raphy, he tells of his early years in Bradford, where he
was born and grew up, and first went to art school; his
years at the Royal College of Art, during which he had
his breakthrough and first came to public attention; his
sojourn in California, which inspired his best-known
paintings, drawings and prints; and his present phase in
Paris, where he now lives, and where a recent exhibition
at the Louvre established him as a 'Continental master'.
What makes this book so fascinating is not only
that the entire text is by Hockney himself - so that his
life-story is given maximum documentation - but also
that it reproduces almost all his paintings and graphic
work to date, as well as many of his drawings. In this
respect, the book amounts to an œuvre catalogue,
although its structure follows the narrative of
Hockney's text and is relatively informal. The story,
presented in more or less chronological form, is
informative and humorous, full of descriptions of his
continued on back flap

With 434 illustrations, 60 in colour