“I think that the more I know and respect people, the more interesting the
result will be.”
David
Hockney - 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life
Ca Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d’Arte
Moderna
At Ca Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d’Arte
Moderna the Fondazione Musei Civici
di Venezia presents the first Italian museum exhibition of the paintings of
David Hockney, one of the greatest
contemporary figurative English painters. David
Hockney 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life, until October 22, is curated by Edith Devaney curator of Contemporary Projects at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and with the scientific
direction of Gabriella Belli. Painted
between 2013 and 2016, and considered by the artist as a single corpus of
works, the eighty-two portraits displayed in Venice offer a vision of Hockney’s life in Los Angeles, his city of adoption, and his relationships with the
international art world, specifically with galleries, critics, curators,
artists. These pictures portray famous faces, such as those of John Baldessari, Larry Gagosian and Stephanie Barron, but also family and
others who became part of his daily life.
“Edith
is an old friend. We worked together on my exhibition A Bigger Picture at The
Royal Academy in 2012, and we have the fortune again of working together on
this exhibition.”
David Hockney – Edith
Devaney
11-12-13 February 2016
“J-P
is the best studio assistant I’ve ever had.”
David Hockney - J-P
Goncalves de Lima
11-12-13 July 2013
In the summer of 2013,
a tragic incident shook the close group of friends and collaborators, throwing
Hockney into a period of inactivity, a rare condition for such a prolific
artist in a wide range of media. After returning to Los Angeles following
almost ten years in Britain, his longest
stay in the country of his birth since the seventies, Hockney again devoted
himself to portraiture, painting Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima (above), his
assistant and close associate in the years of work at Bridlington.
David Hockney
Gregory Evans - Benedikt
Taschen - John Baldessari
Martin Gayford
Some came to the
appointment in elegant clothes with silk skirts, kimono and finely decorated
shirts, dark suits and ties; others instead wore polo shirts and shorts with
deliberate nonchalance. They leaned forward to get closer to the host, or sat
scrupulously straight, seeking to offer the best image of themselves.
photograph and
copyright manfredi bellati
“Dominique
was Yves Saint Laurent’s secretary for a long time. She’s not quite like that. She looks very
formidable there. She is, as well. I got one aspect of her face but not another
I don’t think.”
David Hockney –
Dominique Deroche
4-5-6 February – 2016
David Hockney
George Snyder - Larry
Gagosian - Jonathan Mills
Some seem to be on the
defensive, retreating imperceptibly almost as though to establish a distance;
others, adopting a different body language, express the empathetic bond created
between painter and sitter. The expressions of the faces are changeable: relaxed
and benign, restless or dubious, concentrated and serious. The hands are shown
together in the lap, holding the head, quivering on the armrests of the chair.
And finally there are the shoes, which according to the artist are the
expression of individual personalities: they may be polished and elegant,
comfortable or working shoes, with high heels, aesthetically beautiful or ugly.
“Brian
is a friend of Douglas Baxter and a friend of mine.”
David Hockney – Brian
Hastings
18-19-20 – July 2015
“Dagny
is a very old friend. I met her in 1965.”
David Hockney - Dagny
Corcoran
15-16-17 January -
2014
Mariacristina Gribaudi
President Fondazione
Musei Civici di Venezia
David Hockney
Alex Calderon - Didier
Ottinger
Gabriella Belli
Director Fondazione
Musei Civici di Venezia
David Hockney
Rufus Hale – Matthias
Weischer – Andrew Palmer – Celia Birtwell
David Hockney
Merle Glick – Jacob
Rothchilds - Douglas Baxter
Hockney has known most
of the sitters for a long time, has already portrayed them on other occasions,
and tries to capture their pose as quickly as possible, as they will not sit in
the same, identical fashion in the next session. After the general sketch is
done, the acrylic colour paint is quickly applied to the canvas; this is a
medium that dries quickly and allows for a quick execution. At this juncture,
the artist records the volumes of the face, blocking out the structure of the body
and sketching the background. The application of colour lasts for the three
days of the session, and alternates with a continuous observation of the sitter
for seven hours per day, interrupted only by a lunch break. Working with order
and method, Hockney observes a precise pattern, painting every element,
checking every nuance, angle and detail, intensely studying facial features,
hairstyle and clothing. He is not only rigorous in the rendering of the
subject, but equally attentive to the comparison with the earlier portraits,
having in mind a series composed of single works constituting a set.
“Douglas
is president of Pace Gallery, and is my dealer in New York.”
David Hockney –
Douglas Baxter
8-9-10 February 2014
Elisabetta Barisoni
Director Ca Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d’Arte
Moderna
David Hockney
Julia Green – Jonathan
Mills – Sir Norman Rosenthal
“Ayn
was painted three days after the funeral of her father, Stanely Grinstein,
Director of Gemini G.E.L. I’d arranged
to paint her, and then her father died.
I went to the funeral. So she was
a bit sad, looking a bit sad as well.
Actually Fruit on a Bench was painted because she delayed coming because
of the funeral, so I just set up some fruit on a bench and I thought well, I’ll
just paint something. So I set the bench
up on the same place, so the light is similar, and I just painted it. And then I just kept it with the portraits.”
David Hockney – Ayn
Grinstein
10-11-12 March – 2014
… And 1 Still Life
David Hockney – Fruit
on a Bench
6-7-8 March 2014