David Hockney – Frames of Reference

The Colour Of Memory

The entrance to the Pierre Bonnard exhibition at Tate Modern is a portal through a giant detail reproduction taken from his painting The Garden of 1936. It’s perhaps his best painting. It’s the one that most draws me in, most like a garden itself with it’s abstract disposition of marks and colours, it reminds me of paintings by Patrick Heron and Gillian Ayres. And there are other paintings here that bring to mind Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Howard Hodgkin, David Hockney. But before all of that, we’re straightaway into a red gallery with ‘hot’ paintings of Bonnard’s mistress, full-frontal nudes and a post-coital bedroom scene. The gardening comes later. Continue reading “The Colour Of Memory”

Generation Painting

In Cambridge to visit the recently opened Heong Gallery, a former stable block in the grounds of Downing College, transformed by architects Caruso St John into an elegant space for the display of modern and contemporary art. Continue reading “Generation Painting”

In The Now

David Hockney IN THE NOW (in 6 minutes)

A film by Lucy Walker for Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

The story of David Hockney, an artist who is adamant about living life in the now.

Woldgate Woods

David Hockney made these videos of four seasons in Woldgate Woods by driving slowly down the lane with nine cameras on the car roof. They are now on display in A Bigger Exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Continue reading “Woldgate Woods”

Winter Trees

First there was this Christmas card from a painting by Mick Moon, made with oil paint & string on board and called simply Tree. Then I heard the three Staveley-Taylor sisters (aka The Staves) singing Winter Trees:

Continue reading “Winter Trees”

For Lucian Freud

This is weird. Straightaway Kensington rooftops then a glimpse through a window, as if I’d seen it before. These people are familiar. We see them on the street, in the newsagent, in those boots sometimes, shuffling. Why the hawk? A Peregrine Falcon? Keen eyes and full of energy. I had no idea this film existed until I stumbled upon it today, so now I will share it. Continue reading “For Lucian Freud”