In Praise of Hockney...

With his round face and owlish eyes, David Hockney is now almost as recognisable as his paintings, reports the Guardian. And that is saying something, since the best of his swimming-pool scenes and uneasy portraits are art images admired around the world. The artist, who turns 70 today, has a creative restlessness which has always led him to explore new forms. After art-school expressionism he pioneered British pop art, before turning his hand to set design, etched illustration and the photographic montages he dubs "joiners". His mastery of colour, though, is a constant, and is seen once again in his vibrant new set of oil landscapes, which follows the same patch of woodland over the seasons. There are abiding themes, too. One is a concern with how the human eye actually sees; another is art history: he remains a voracious student of the greats - his selection of Turners forms the heart of Tate Britain's current summer show. Through long years in California, he never forgot his Yorkshire roots, returning regularly, before finally coming back home; the biggest collection of his work remains in Saltaire, near Bradford, no distance from where he was born. An original on the canvas, his individualism also emerges in idiosyncratic theories about the reliance of the old masters on cameras. It shows itself, too, in his tirades against bossiness - which reached an almost demented pitch in resisting the smoking ban. Even as he enters his eighth decade, among British artists, it is still David Hockney who makes a bigger splash.
(For full source and article click the Headline).
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