Monday, October 19, 2009
A BIGGER SPLASH OVER THERE
In 1974 I saw a film called
It was a unique experience. A fictional story about a real artist, David Hockney, and his real friends.
There was painting, there was life, there was a style of life which was beyond bohemian in a good way.
Hockney was a counterculturist. A pop artist. The story and the people were an expression of his art as well as a description of his art. Not the same thing.
I have seen the film a few times since. It not only holds up but is, in terms of Hockney's subsequent, wildly creative and prolific career, quite prophetic.
I have watched his life and his work over time. I have been influenced about it. One cannot have moved to southern California and not be aware of Hockney's take on it.
Well, you could, but it is more fun knowing about Hockney.
He has had an interesting life. He has become nearly totally deaf. He has become an "establishment" artist in a way that only Hockney could become one.
He continues to create prolifically and has totally adopted the new technology. He has iPod paintings which were among the first. Now it is almost a cliché. Cover of The New Yorker by someone else who was cheered as wildly innovative.
He has influenced thousands of young artists in many fields other than "painting".
Now, a profile and a report on the latest work.
David Hockney’s Long Road Home
He has gone back to the UK. Home. Well, he is still living here part time but he is mostly there.
Hockney is 71. Close to my age.
The film that I saw in 1974 was very important to me. It showed me that I could have another life than the one I had thought I would or should have.
I am very grateful to him for living his life out and being fully visible. Making his life his art, part of the time.
I suppose that I should bring out some of the subtext here. Hockney is gay, is in a long time relationship and, in the film, was completely open about his life and quite happy and unrepentant for it. A role model. A hero. People who are out and about are the revolutionaries who have made it possible for me to have had a first wedding anniversary. Rights advance when straight people know who gay people are. And so on.
Let's keep it on the art part. He is a great artist of our time and should be grandly applauded. Standing O.
Labels: art, gay history, gay life, heroes
