The Art Market Monitor notes Sotheby’s choice to sell a recent David Hockney Woldgate landscape in its upcoming November sales in New York, and notes a series of interesting choices made by the auction in its selection.  “It has an eye-opening estimate of $9-12m for a body of work that has not seen action on the public market; and, Sotheby’s seems to be banking on the success of February’s big Tate retrospective which isn’t always a slam-dunk,” Marion Maneker writes. (more…)

David Hockney sits down with the Guardian’s Martin Gayford this week, to discuss the process of painting, and talk about some of his most beloved artworks.  “The moment you put down two or three marks on a piece of paper, you get relationships. They’ll start to look like something,” Hockney says.  “If you draw two little lines they might look like two figures or two trees. One was made first, one second. We read all kinds of things into marks. You can suggest landscape, people and faces with extremely little. It all depends on the human ability to see a mark as a depiction.” (more…)

David Hockney, Barry Humphries, 26th, 27th, 28th March (2015), all images courtesy Royal Academy

Currently on view at London’s Royal Academy through the end of the month, artist David Hockney continues his remarkably prolific painterly output, bringing a new series of portraits created at his Los Angeles studio to the British Institution.  Exploring a wide range of sitters through the artist’s particular approach to the genre, the show is both a striking map of Hockney’s own life, and his vivid, tireless approach to his craft.

 David Hockney, Rita Pynoos, 1st, 2nd March (2014)

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The Tate Modern is planning a landmark retrospective for David Hockney in 2017, one of the largest exhibitions the museum has ever opened.  “We’ve shaped the show and made a selection and then he’s made suggestions and we’ve shifted the emphasis a bit and there are some works he’s asked us to think about,” says co-curator Chris Stephens. (more…)

David Hockney is the subject of an interview in The Guardian this week, revisiting his life among movie stars and artists during the 1960’s, contrasted with his intense work ethic.  “I thought I was a hedonist at the time, but when I look back I was always working,” he says.  “I am always working. I work every day. I never give parties; I never gave them.” (more…)

Artist David Hockney is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, reviewing his recent work, and offering his take on the meaning of being an artist. “Lots of people don’t really look,” he says. “They scan the ground in front of them, but they don’t really look that hard.” (more…)

David Hockney, Woldgate Woods, November 26th (2010), via Art Observed

David Hockney returns to the Pace Gallery this month, showing a selection of new works that once again focus on the artist’s love affair with his Woldgate home, and the continued expansion of his decades of work as a painter into new media forms.  Titled The Arrival of Spring, the work is another entry in the artist’s documentation and depiction of the landscapes of rural Britain. (more…)

BBC Two has commissioned a feature-length documentary on the life and work of David Hockney, focusing on the life and work of the iconic British painter.  HOCKNEY, as it has been titled, will air next year, and will be made by the same filmmaking team behind the popular Lucian Freud: Painted Life.  “David Hockney stands as one of Britain’s seminal and most important artists, and I’m delighted to be showing this major film on him on BBC Two,”  says BBC Two Controller Kim Shillinglaw:  Arts on BBC Two is all about bringing the biggest and best documentaries to the broadest of audiences, and I know this film will be a riveting and inspiring watch.” (more…)

Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl Gallery in Chelsea opened its “Art on Color” show this past Thursday, June 8th, a show that challenges the traditional white-walled gallery notion by introducing bold colors on its walls. A colorful palette of oranges, yellows, and greens backdrops artworks by represented artists: John Baldessari, Ann Hamilton, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Man Ray, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Joel Shapiro. “[David Hockney] pointed out to us that when you look at art on a white wall the first thing you see is the frame, but when you look at art on a wall with color, the first thing you see is the art,” Peter Stamberg, one of the gallery’s architects, explained at the opening.

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Painter David Hockney’s iPad influenced works are the subject of a short piece in Wired Magazine, describing the artist’s influences from Warhol to 19th century French painting.  Part of the artist’s broader interest in new media and potentials for composition, the works feature Hockney’s signature combination of vibrant colors and quick, steady strokes. (more…)

An investigation into the death of David Hockney’s studio assistant, Dominic Elliott, has revealed that the young artist died as the result of drinking acid.  Elliott, whose autopsy revealed the presence of several drugs in his system, had been drinking with Hockney’s former partner, John Fitzherbert.  “I cannot comment on any of the lifestyle habits he has,” Mr Hockney said in a statement. (more…)

David Hockney, The Jugglers, June 24th 2012 (detail), (2012), © David Hockney, Via Hockney Pictures and Pace Gallery

The Jugglers, June 24th 2012 (2012), the U.S. premiere of artist David Hockney’s first video installation, presents a panorama of bright color and whirling objects, tinged with mordant humor. In a darkened room on the second floor of the Whitney, the viewer will find a bare theater with a single long bench and eighteen screens arranged in a grid. The screens switch on to reveal a composition of red and blue horizontal blocks almost as flat as Hockney’s early acrylics. Also bearing similarities to his Polaroid collages, Hockney has chosen to create a fractured composition using video to achieve the same effect by combining feeds from eighteen different cameras mounted in his Yorkshire studio on a sunny day. The light is even and saturates the space, permitting no highlights or shadows, and without figures, the red and blue studio looks relatively seamless on the screen. (more…)

Artist David Hockney has broken the silence surrounding the death of his assistant, 23-year old Dominic Elliott.  Elliott’s death, the causes of which remain somewhat of a mystery, sidelined the painter, forcing him to take a break from his prolific work.   “The spring didn’t start until late April this year. I wasn’t doing anything much, had nearly given up, and was still thinking about going to LA when my assistant, Jean-Pierre, said I didn’t really have an option. I had to continue with the work. And he was right. I’m not going to retire. I just keep working and that’s what I think I should do.” (more…)

Artist David Hockney’s first multi-channel video work, The Jugglers, June 24th 2012 (2012) will have its American debut next month at The Whitney Museum. Depicting a set of jugglers moving against a blue and white backdrop, the video employs 18 separate channels of video, using intense lighting to alter perceptions of depth and space.  “In this new video installation David Hockney surprises us once again, exploring how multiple perspectives can transform our experience of the moving image. Hockney mines the histories of cinema and painting through the lens of technology, to create a new way of seeing.” said curator Chrissie Ilessaid. (more…)

The notoriously reclusive painter David Hockney has reportedly snubbed repeated attempts to grant him the Freedom of the British city of Bridlington, where he has lived and worked for many years.  Local officials in the East Yorkshire town have also attempted to name a town gallery after him, but abandoned the effort when they could not establish contact.  “Unfortunately, we have not been able to obtain any response from Mr Hockney regarding the renaming of a gallery at The Spa or indeed in relation to the granting of the Freedom of Bridlington and I have to conclude therefore that this is something which does not appeal to him.”  Said Nigel Pearson, chief executive of Bridlington. (more…)

Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Grayson Perry have created works to give to the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. David Hockney used a drawing of her initials made on an iPad and Emin created a portrait of her on paper. In total 97 works were acquired for the Royal Collection and will be exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2013.
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The New York Times reports on the rising wealth in Singapore and its interest in arts and culture; a particular example at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. Over 4,200 paintings and sculptures are on view to the public in the hotel. “Moby Dick,” a fiberglass sculpture the hotel commissioned by Frank Stella, hangs in the lobby. The corporate collection includes work by Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Henry Moore. The four Kwee brothers, whose company owns the hotel, are known to be one of Singapore’s wealthiest families. They started by displaying their private collection in the hotel and then went on to commission 350 artworks for the site. (more…)

David Hockney – A Closer Winter Tunnel, February–March (2006), Guggenheim Bilbao

British painter David Hockney has, over the course of his 50 year career, continually pushed the conceptions of landscape painting, exploring various approaches to form, color and composition that mirror his ongoing fascination with shifting technologies and cultural perception. Now, his work is being shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao as the second venue of a major exhibition of the Yorkshire native’s work, including a large collection of works done in his home town.

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‬Nine artworks donated to the Tate, including pieces by David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and Jacob Epstein, “[this gift] greatly enriched the national collection of art”, says director Sir Nicholas Serota

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‪‬Tate Britain reaches fundraising goal of £45 million for various refurbishments to the building, including a “semi-permanent display” of historical British art featuring work by William Blake, David Hockney, and LS Lowry

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‪‬David Hockney technically tops Britain’s annual Giving List (in terms of ratio of worth) by donating £78.1m in paintings and £730,000 in cash to his David Hockney Foundation, 2.3 times his net worth of £34m, while Richard Branson gave the highest numerical amount of £358m

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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild at Galerie Sho Booth, Pier 92

On the third and final day of the Armory Show 2012 both spirits and sales were high amongst the 228 exhibitors. Besides the notable success of David Zwirner’s solo booth by Michael Riedel, which sold out entirely in the first 30 minutes of the fair, many of the other galleries also benefited from the sales of their high-ticket items throughout the three-day exhibition. Art Observed spoke with representatives from various exhibitors including the Susan Sheehan Gallery, Spanierman Modern, Meredith Ward Fine Art, Art in General, Sprüth Magers, and the Gary Snyder Gallery. (more…)

Lucian Freud, Reflection (Self-portrait) (1985). All images © The Lucian Freud Archive.

Lucian Freud‘s work spans a seventy year trajectory on view now at the National Portrait Gallery in London in the first ever exhibition to focus solely on the artist’s portraiture, curated in collaboration with Freud over his final years. Born the grandson of Sigmund Freud in 1922 in Berlin, Germany, L. Freud passed away at age 88 last July as perhaps one of the most influential and important artists of his generation. The expansive exhibition includes works from as early as 1940 to the last and unfinished painting Freud was working on, highlighting stylistic developments that occurred over the decades. Freud’s subjects ran the gamut from his family, friends and lovers, to celebrities, criminals and aristocrats.

Lucian Freud, Girl in a Dark Jacket (1947)

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