David Hockney at the Royal Academy: 82 Portraits and One Still Life
Earlier this week members of the Innova Art team were invited to attend the patrons view of 82 Portraits and One Still Life. The latest exhibition from David Hockney features a riot of colour and a compelling theme. This is the first major exhibition by David Hockney at the Royal Academy since his Yorkshire landscapes show in 2012. Since then he has returned to his Los Angeles studio. This portrait series represents a return to a genre that has had a prominent place in his long career. The portraits in the exhibition were produced in a three day period over two years. David Hockney invited each sitter to his Los Angeles studio; every painting features the same chair and share backgrounds in various shades of blue. Saturated colours in the paintings invite viewers to immerse themselves in the images. Arranged in near chronological order of production, the exhibition space creates an intimate environment to view the paintings. Hockney describes the paintings as a ‘twenty hour exposure’, the maximum amount of time he felt he could ask from anyone. In total there are more than 90 portraits in this series, including some sitters who were painted twice. All produced since the summer of 2013, with just twenty hours dedicated to each one. Every sitter was invited to participate; they are family, friends and close associates of the artist. Describing his friends as his celebrities, Hockney has created a rare insight into his life and the respect he has for the people around him. Every painting started with a charcoal sketch on canvas to fix the pose in place. Hockney then used acrylic paint with a high gel content to ensure that he could work with the [...]
