This exhibition included digital films,
drawings in pencil and charcoal, and paintings in watercolor, acrylic and oil.
Hockney is prolific in all of these - he calls the films cubist, and
the portraits are impressive too - but it is the multi-year dedication to
depicting the English landscape that leaves the viewer absolutely engrossed,
engaged and completely immersed. An over-arching theme for the painter is
depicting the passage of time. On several groups of pieces, he draws or
paints the same landscape scene over 4 different seasons - winter, spring,
summer, fall - or he'll show the emergence of a season, as spring bursts from
February to May. The works range from intimate 18" x 24" sheets,
often done in series, to monumental pieces of 32 canvases arranged
edge-to-edge, four up by eight across.
The draughtsmanship is that of a seasoned
master, confident across any medium, oil to iPad. Through the work,
we are always reminded that we are looking at an interpretation, at a
translation. These images are representations of nature as filtered through the
artist's mind and skilled, guided hand. The colors are stunning, playful,
almost obscene at times. Trees are purple and green and yellow and tangerine.
Leaves are blue and black and white. These landscapes are electric with
their neon colors and their vibration and their whimsy and
their depth.
A glass vitrine full of his sketchbooks also
showed that he draws all the time. On the plane, at the dinner table, at the
café, on the porch. He uses pencils, pens, markers, crayons, charcoal,
watercolors, acrylic paint, oil paint. And most recently, since 2010, he's
taken to drawing on his phone and iPad. He does great work with these digital
tools, too.
It would of been great to see some of this work
in day-lit galleries, but the deYoung's new building, completed in 2005, did
not include the natural lighting of artwork as a design feature -
most museums don't, and that's a loss for us all. Hopefully the next generation
of museums will do better.
At the exhibition, there were 2 rooms full of
work that he had executed since the summer, after the work that was supposed
to be the subject of the exhibition was already done. He draws more in a
week than most people draw in a lifetime. My wife insists that he is so
prolific because that is what he does. He is an artist. That is his occupation,
his job. He does it all day, every day. And I agree.
For Christmas, my mom gave me a little
book call Daily Rituals, which looks at the daily routines of artists and other
creative people. The book begins with this table from Ben Franklin, of his ideal day - note that there's still 8 hours of proper "work" and 7 hours of sleep. Happily he seemed to have no commute time!
For Hockney, he's cleary and artist with no other day job. He
draws and paints all day. It's the same for some writers, who
are known to methodically write, say, 5,000 words per day. It is their routine,
which they follow methodically, whether they are feeling particularly creative –
in the mood - or not.
But some of us paint after hours, after our
daytime work. We're not dilettantes, it's simply that we have many passions, an
some help pay the mortgage, while others are payless passions, that we pursue
after hours, for little or no compensation. We act, write, create, paint, draw
for the pleasure and the challenge and the pursuit offered by the creative
process itself. We write plays, draw maps, make jewelry, teach, design
furniture. You may find us on Esty.com, or at holiday craft fairs, or autumn open
studios events. Here you will find our second selves, the other sides of us
that battle with the day-job side. But we are not two-faced, we are Janus
faced, two (or more) sides of complex people.
I am
thankful that David Hockney pays his mortgage by painting!
