Several views

Press, 30 July 1986, Page 22

Several views

"Hockney’s Photographs,” an exhibition of photocollages by the internationally renowned artist, David Hockney, is expected to attract more than 70,000 viewers during a tour of New Zealand which begins in Christchurch on Friday.

The exhibition will be at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.

It will also be shown at the Dunedin Public Art gallery, the Wellington City Art Gallery and the Auckland City Art Gallery.

David Hockney has been described as the most popular serious artist in the world, a reputation derived from a talent

that is not limited to any particular medium. At various stages in his career as a painter, his work has ranged from disciplined realism to fluent, spontaneous and highly coloured works. The designing of sets for opera and the theatre has been an important part of his work.

Hockney was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1937, the fourth of five children.

He was accepted by the Bradford School of Art in 1951, where he studied

painting for four years, often working 12 hours a day. His first oil painting, "Portrait of My Father” sold for £lO at a 1954 exhibition in Leeds.

After registering as a conscientious objector to National Service, David Hockney entered London’s Royal College of Art. Here he was strongly influenced by the work of Picasso. By the time he had finished his studies in 1962 Hockney had acquired a national reputation.

David Hockney now

lives and works in Los Angeles. Until early 1982 Hockney regarded photography as little more than a hobby, albeit one that he pursued vigorously, composing, rather than just filling, the pages of hundreds of albums with photographs of his family, friends, places and incidents. To Hockney photographs were but a recorded instance, lacking the layering of time and depth of experience that the very process of applying paint to a canvas lent

to painting. This changed when a curator, involved in selecting some of his album photogarphs for a Centre Pompidou exhibition, left Hockney a Polaroid camera and several dozen packets of film. Using these, Hockney shot and assembled a collage of his Los Angeles house. The result, he saw, tended to succeed where individual photographs failed.

Comprising 101 works, the exhibition, “Hockney’s Photographs,” is the most important Hockney exhibition yet to come to New Zealand. A catalogue with 18 full-colour plates of Hockney’s photographs

has been especially produced for the New Zealand tour. “Hockney’s Photographs” has been brought to New Zealand by the British Council with the support of British Paints. International freight to Australia, where the exhibition tours after New Zealand, will be covered by the New Zealand Line and the Australian National Line. Assistance has also been provided by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. The New Zealand tour has been organised by the New Zealand Art Gallery Directors’ Council. The Christchurch exhibition closes on September 7.