David Hockney The Biography 1937-1975

Description

Before the swimming pools, there was Bradford. David Hockney: The Biography, 1937–1975 — subtitled A Rake’s Progress — is the first volume of Christopher Simon Sykes’s definitive life, covering the years of formation, fame, and creative daring that made Hockney the world’s most famous living painter.

Drawing on exclusive access to Hockney’s archives, notebooks, and personal papers, Sykes traces the journey: a witty, ambitious art student with dyed blond hair and unshakeable self-belief, through the Royal College of Art and swinging-sixties London, to the sun-drenched Los Angeles canvases that made him an international star. Lovers, friends, and fellow artists — from Peter Schlesinger to the faces in the famous double portraits — fill these pages.

Intimate, richly detailed, and illustrated throughout, this is the story of an artist learning to see — and teaching the rest of us to see with him. Essential, exhilarating reading for Hockney devotees and anyone fascinated by the making of a modern master.

Before David Hockney became the world’s most famous living painter, he was a witty, ambitious art student from Bradford with dyed blond hair and an unshakeable belief in his own talent. David Hockney: The Biography, 1937–1975 — subtitled A Rake’s Progress — is the first volume of Christopher Simon Sykes’s definitive life of the artist, covering the years of formation, fame, and creative daring.
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nDrawing on exclusive, unprecedented access to Hockney’s extensive archives, notebooks, and personal papers, Sykes traces the journey from a Yorkshire childhood through the Royal College of Art, the swinging sixties, and the sun-drenched swimming pools of Los Angeles that made Hockney an international star. Along the way we meet the lovers, friends, and fellow artists — from Peter Schlesinger to the faces in those famous double portraits — who shaped his world.
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nIntimate, richly detailed, and illustrated throughout, this is the story of an artist learning to see — and teaching the rest of us to see with him. For Hockney devotees and anyone fascinated by the making of a modern master, the first volume of Sykes’s biography is essential, exhilarating reading.