David
Hockney began his career with a very abstracted style of painting. He used his
art to express his sexuality in a still conservative London arena. His works
combined both abstract and figurative elements, and he used text and numbers
heavily within his paintings. After his relocation to California in late 1963
his work took on a new life. He began exploring an almost architectural style,
simplified and simplistic, yet at the same time, very realistic. He used strong
lines and a far more pastel palette, representative of the typical American
suburban colours of the time. Although his work still explored homosexuality,
and regularly showed naked men, his style became remarkably different from that
which had earned him the respect of his teachers and peers at the Royal College
of Art in London.
His
painting Doll Boy 1960-61 shows a
background with strong diagonal lines overlaid with a very abstracted figure of
a boy. The figure is in stark contrast to the controlled background, being
painted with hurried brushstrokes that show much expressive movement. The
colour within this painting is bright and vibrant and the subject matter
explores sexuality in a seemingly open, yet still quite conservative way. Cliff
Richards’ song Livin’Doll had been a
recent hit and is referenced within the painting in the forms of the numbers 3
and 18 being placed in a simple alphabetical code for the letters C and R. (Archer, 2002 p.25) The word queen is written
over the bottom of the painting, perhaps implying that the Living Doll within
Cliff Richards famous song, was actually gay.
We Two Boys
Together Clinging, 1961 shares the same hurried brushstrokes and repeated vertical
patterns as Doll Boy. The painting also
incorporates text and numbers and is done with a bright and vibrant palette. This
painting openly explores the idea of homosexuality, with the two boys kissing
and looking back at the viewer perhaps in defiance of the still conservative
London audience. Both of these paintings are painted in an almost childlike
way, very simplified with no detail to be seen. There are no muscles or
sculpted tone, as can be found in his later work. Despite the difference in
style, he continued to explore his sexuality within his paintings after his
relocation to California.
Despite
the childlike nature of these early paintings, or perhaps because of the irony
of combining such a simplistic style with such adult subject matter, David
Hockneys’ work drew acclaim from his peers and earned him success. Archer
describes why his work was successful: ‘...
[they are] noteworthy for their wilful mix of abstract and figurative elements,
and for the manner in which they used the marks of graffiti and language of
teenage crushes in the expression of sexuality and desire.’ (2002, p.25)
After
his relocation in late 1963 he found that California was exactly as he had
hoped it would be. Within the first week of arriving he had bought a car and
earned his American drivers licence. He had driven himself to Los Vegas and won
money there, set up a studio and begun painting. It was exactly as he imagined
and so he immersed himself fully in the culture of 1960’s America.
(Lucie-Smith, 1995 p. 44) His painting Building,
Pershing Square, Los Angeles 1964 shows none of his earlier frenzied
brushstrokes, rather it looks very deliberate and smooth. The painting is very
calming to look at, and is almost architectural in style. He has still
incorporated text within this work, but the text has a purpose: it is the name
of the building he is depicting. This painting has strong lines, but those
lines are painted with a much more muted pastel palette.
Man Taking a
Shower in Beverly Hills 1964, shows how he embraced this new architectural style. It shows
strong diagonals and a very simplified, or simplistic depending on your
viewpoint, look into the bathroom of a man taking a shower. The perspective is
distorted and as a viewer you are not quite sure whether you are looking at one
room, or three. The tiles on the walls of the shower are painted in such a way
that you are not sure which direction the wall is facing. In the upper right
corner of the painting is a half view of a dining table and chairs, which begs
the question: are we looking at a window type view of another room, or are we
looking at a picture of a dining setting? The strong line of the pink carpet
adjacent to the shower leads our eye directly to this view, so perhaps Mr
Hockney wanted to create some confusion within his picture. The wet naked man
within the shower shows how ‘fascinated with the images of young, built, and tan
men’ he had become. Indeed, this was a repeated subject in many of his
Californian paintings, with many of them including ‘mainly wet, sculpted men’.
(www.davidhockney.com)
In
A Bigger Splash 1967, he shows us his
now favourite subject of the suburban but sunny Californian landscape. This
painting is very architectural, utilising a soft pastel palette so typical of
the suburbs in America in the 1960’s. It appears very simplified, yet in
actuality is quite detailed. The shadows within the plate windows are layered
with tonal variations and are very precise. The splash of the water adds
movement and vibrancy giving the image layers of interest and ensuring viewer
curiosity. He ‘creates a delightful
interplay between the stolid pink verticals of a Los Angeles setting and the
exuberance of spray as the unseen diver enters the pool. [There is] no visible
presence here, just that lonely, empty chair, and a bare, almost frozen world.
Yet that wild white splash can only [have] come from another human’. (www.ibilio.org/wm/paint/auth/hockney/)
According
to Hughes, David Hockney shows us a ‘detached, amiable, but sharply
discriminating ... affectionate image of the blank good life under the
California sun’. (1991 p.420) Before his relocation to California, Hockneys’
work was simplistic yet abstracted, exploring his views on homosexuality with
hurried brushstrokes full of movement and bright vibrant colour palettes. After
he moved, he embraced the seedy underground of 1960’s Los Angeles and found an
entirely new way to express his sexuality through his work. He still created
movement and interest within his paintings, simply with a new technique. He
piqued the viewers’ curiosity by using a different type of simplification, a
more subtle colour palette and a much more naturalistic painting style. His colours reflect the sun sea and sky that
forms so much of the Californian lifestyle and his subjects are the ordinary,
yet somehow extraordinary Californian suburb dwellers. These paintings are
vastly different in appearance and technique, and seem a world away from the
work he was creating in Londons’ cold, dreary and conservative art world.
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| David Hockney, The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, 1960-61 |
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| Man Taking a Shower in Beverly Hills, 1964 David Hockney |
REFERENCE
LIST
Archer,
Michael. 2002 Art Since 1960 New
Edition, Thames and Hudson, London, UK
Hughes,
Robert. 1991 Shock of The New,
Thames and Hudson, London, UK.
Lucie-Smith,
Edward. 1995 Art Today,
Phaidon Press Ltd., London, UK.
www.davidhockney.com n.d.
accessed June 11, 2012
www.ibilio.org/wm/paint/auth/hockney/ n.d.
accessed June 11, 2012