The Student: Homage to Picasso, 1973
Etching
Hockney visited the major Picasso exhibition in 1960 at the Tate Gallery and the modern Master became a lifelong love. Following Picasso’s death in 1973 Hockney made two etchings in the spirit of Picasso’s Vollard Suite (1930-7). In Artist and Model, Hockney depicts an imaginary meeting between the modern master and himself, as the nude model, using different etching techniques to differentiate between the two; the looser ‘sugar-lift’ method to describe Picasso and a more densely hatched line for himself. Hockney had been taught the sugar-lift, a technique particularly associated with Picasso, that year in Paris by Aldo Crommelynck, the master printer of the modern Master’s later etchings. Self-Portrait, July 1986, reflects the older artist‘s stylistic influence.*
From the exhibition
David Hockney: Drawing from Life
(November 2023 - January 2024)
David Hockney (b.1937) is regarded as one of the master draughtsmen of our times. He widely champions drawing, which is at the heart of his studio activity and has underpinned his work throughout his life. From the early pen and ink and coloured pencil drawings, to his more recent experiments with watercolour and digital technology, the artist’s inventive visual language has taken many different stylistic turns.
Over the past six decades he has never stood still, or rested on a particular approach, medium or technique, remaining inquisitive, playful and thought provoking while generously sharing his ideas with his audience. His drawing reflects his admiration for both the Old Masters and ‘modern Masters’ from Rembrandt to Picasso.
Drawing from Life explores the artist’s unique vision of the world around him, which is played out in portraits of himself and his intimate circle. A room of new ‘painted drawings’ of visitors to his Normandy studio in 2021-2 offer a glimpse of Hockney’s continuing working life.
All works in the exhibition are by David Hockney..
[*National Portrait Gallery]
Taken in National Portrait Gallery
The Student: Homage to Picasso, 1973
Etching
Hockney visited the major Picasso exhibition in 1960 at the Tate Gallery and the modern Master became a lifelong love. Following Picasso’s death in 1973 Hockney made two etchings in the spirit of Picasso’s Vollard Suite (1930-7). In Artist and Model, Hockney depicts an imaginary meeting between the modern master and himself, as the nude model, using different etching techniques to differentiate between the two; the looser ‘sugar-lift’ method to describe Picasso and a more densely hatched line for himself. Hockney had been taught the sugar-lift, a technique particularly associated with Picasso, that year in Paris by Aldo Crommelynck, the master printer of the modern Master’s later etchings. Self-Portrait, July 1986, reflects the older artist‘s stylistic influence.*
From the exhibition
David Hockney: Drawing from Life
(November 2023 - January 2024)
David Hockney (b.1937) is regarded as one of the master draughtsmen of our times. He widely champions drawing, which is at the heart of his studio activity and has underpinned his work throughout his life. From the early pen and ink and coloured pencil drawings, to his more recent experiments with watercolour and digital technology, the artist’s inventive visual language has taken many different stylistic turns.
Over the past six decades he has never stood still, or rested on a particular approach, medium or technique, remaining inquisitive, playful and thought provoking while generously sharing his ideas with his audience. His drawing reflects his admiration for both the Old Masters and ‘modern Masters’ from Rembrandt to Picasso.
Drawing from Life explores the artist’s unique vision of the world around him, which is played out in portraits of himself and his intimate circle. A room of new ‘painted drawings’ of visitors to his Normandy studio in 2021-2 offer a glimpse of Hockney’s continuing working life.
All works in the exhibition are by David Hockney..
[*National Portrait Gallery]
Taken in National Portrait Gallery