Not too long ago the Innkeeper devoted an article in this publication to one of the most recognized representatives of pop art British, Ronald B. Kitaj. Hoy le toca el turno a David Hockney (Bradford, 1937), one friend from the years when both were studying at the Royal College of Art in London and with artists such as Peter Phillips, Derek Boshier, Patrick Caulfield, Allen Jones, Peter Blake o el mismísimo Richard Hamilton, comprised a wide and varied list of authors seduced by images taken from popular culture media, definition of this manual describing the first concept pop art.
Hockney's style, as happened with others who are included within the label pop art, has evolved over time. His early evidence a patent influence of expressionism and, all the more, Bacon's own, expressive austerity drifted, already in the sixties, towards a more colorful realism, especially evident since his first contact with the New York art pop. The author occasionally wrote: “I paint what I want, when I want and how I want” and then lists some of the themes of his paintings: “Landscapes of foreign countries, bella gente, love, propaganda and major incidents (of my own life)”.
Regarding the British pop art, chronologically prior to New York, characteristics and very personal, Lucy R. Lippard wrote the following:
“It can be said that the pop art was developed in England as an opposite aesthetic project to review current. But as this project or idea was extending, acceptance, absorption even, by various artists, led to a series of adaptations. The pop art was modified, for example, to engage in abstract art painting, and also to be used as a renewal of figurative art, effeminate in the case of Hockney, and refined, in return, Jones in. In response to the question: “So you pop art is considered in England as a vitalizing figuration?”, Jones responded: “Yes”. The fact that the English pop art does not have the density and rigor of the New York art pop may be due to the tendency of the British to modify ideas and embrace change with prudence, balance the forces and delay the time of the final agreement. The British pop artists were historically rapid and timely, which is admirable, but it seems that some fear to seem too simple (as if doing good things difficult at a time was not already enough) Total has blocked kick style, despite the diverse and rich the art pop.” (Lucy R. Lippard, El Pop Art, Ediciones Destino, Barcelona, 1993).
But the reasons that lead us to David Hockney take a medium in this tavern not derived from his long and influential career, glossed in numerous monographs and studies on pop art. Those reasons must be sought in the trip he made to Andalusia 2004, specifically to the historic cities of Córdoba, Seville and Granada. In this trip, which lasted about two weeks, did a total of six watercolors in which he was seduced by the Islamic architecture in southern Spain. This collection was presented at the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London in the same year.
The Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London 2004 in The Country (10/06/2004)
I really really like his series on the pools and also has magnificent photographic collages.