2. Brief biography Born in Bradford, David Hockney was the fourth of five children, born on July 9, 1947. Brought up in a home run by strict Methodists, David’s parents, Laura and Kenneth Hockney, made their children’s education a high priority, striving to give them only the best. By the time he won a scholarship to Bradford Grammar School at age eleven, he already felt he wanted to be an artist (Hockney).
3. Biography cont. David attended Bradford Grammar School just before attending Bradford Art School. His interest in art would have been described as more conservative, but David soon took an interest in the avant-garde. He also made his interest apparent working as a draughtsman at the Bradford Art School between 1953 and 1957(Barrow).
4. Biography cont. In 1959, David began a three year postgraduate course at the Royal College of Art in London. At this time in his age he was at a point where he was discovering and finding himself not only on an artistic level, but a personal level as well. Some of the paintings he created had a homosexually orientated feel (Barrow). However, with Hockney’s humor, leadership skills, and artistic view and ability won him the Royal College of Art’s gold medal in 1962 (Barrow).
5. Style/movement Though David did not think of himself as such an artist, many believe that Hockney was the main advocate for the start of Pop Art (Hockney). While attending Royal College he noticed that there seemed to be two types of students. The ones he wanted to be like were the ones that were not customary and followed their own path rather than conforming to majority opinions. These students were doing Abstract Expressionism, which is what Hockney thought himself to be pursuing (Barrow).
6. Style/movement Hockney went on to begin painting works about vegetarianism and poetry that he liked to read. While at Royal College, he befriended a few other gay artist friends and more of his paintings began to reflect homosexuality in some fashion. While living in London, Hockney was subscribed to magazines which had pictorials of California and the men there. His dream was to go to California, which he did and made Sant Monica his home. He based many of his paintings in a Californian setting often with people drawn in them which fit his likings, which were typically tanned and built men. Hockney would spend many of his days at the Santa Monica pier just to people watch and admire the beautiful boys (Bio- David Hockney).
17. Hockney’s work has strongly reflected many of his feelings through life experiences. Looking at his work would be comparable to reading a book. Starting with his early works he produced ideas through painting that were in his mind which he may not have known were there at the time.
18. Hockney was a very sociable and well liked person with many artist and printmaker friends such as Andy Warhol and PieroCrommelynck (Bio- David Hockney). Some of Picasso’s work influenced the direction of Hockney’s style during the seventies and even influenced the Cubism of his photo collages.
19. Hockney continued to use newer technology going into the nineties. Scanning some of his own paintings he could do different effects to colors which he never thought possible (Pioch). Fax machines were a joy for David as well. The idea to be able to communicate pictures made it that much easier for him to publicize his work.
20. Overall David Hockney was an amazing artist with true talent. By starting Pop Art almost on accident in the sixties, he not only set the tone for many artists all over the globe, but also made a name for himself and generated much fame and glory. Though he had many hardships in his life, art and painting remained his passion and his way of expressing himself and his way of shaping himself into the person he has become.
21. Works cited Works Cited Pioch, Nicolas. (2002 July 14). Web Museum: Hockney, David. Retrieved from http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hockney/ David Hockney. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 Nov. 2009, from http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hockney.html Barrow, Mark. (2005). MODERN BRITISH ART- David Hockney biography. Retrieved 12 Nov. 2009, from http://www.modernbritishartists.co.uk/hockney_biog.htm David Hockney. Biography Reference Bank. 2009. Retrieved 12 Nov. 2009, from Biography Reference Bank database: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/. Hoffman, K. (1991). Explorations: The Visual Arts Since 1945. New York: Harper Collins Bio- David Hockney. (n.d.). Retrieved 12 Nov. 2009, from http://www.davidhockney.com/bio.shtml
