David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

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David Hockney, one of the world’s greatest living artists, is creating some of the most significant work of his long career, painting the landscape and changing seasons of his native Yorkshire. These large, colorful works are the capstone of his engagement with nature, not only in England but also in the American Southwest, through the media of painting and photography. This book, the catalog of the first major Hockney museum exhibition in many years, offers a glorious view of the landscape as seen by the artist, and it includes not only his recent paintings but also his iPhone and iPad drawings. Essays by leading art historians—as well as a more literary piece by novelist Margaret Drabble and Hockney’s own reflections on his recent work—explore Hockney’s art from various perspectives.

Praise for David Hockney:

"Supplemented with numerous essays by art critics and Hockney himself, this is a mesmerizing volume of an established artist who continues to assert his dynamic relevancy." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 "This glorious volume showcases this unique and exhilarating body of work, which celebrates the pulse of life in trees, fields, flowers, and clouds over the great cycle of the seasons . . . The enlightening commentary is merely prelude to a swoon once the reader turns to the 300 resplendent color reproductions." —Booklist, starred review

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Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition): Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters

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British painter David Hockney, well known for his cool and lovely paintings of California pools, has taken on the new role of detective. For two years Hockney seriously investigated the painting techniques of the old masters, and like any admirable sleuth, compiled substantial evidence to support his revolutionary theory. Secret Knowledge is the fruit of this labor, an exhaustive treatise in pictures revealing clues that some of the world's most famous painters, Ingres, Velázquez, Caravaggio (just to mention a few) utilized optics and lenses in creating their masterpieces. Hockney's fascination with the subject is contagious, and the book feels almost like a game with each analysis a "How'd they do that?" instead of a whodunit. While some may find the technical revelation a disappointment in terms of the idea of genius, Hockney is quick to point out that the use of optics does not diminish the immensity of artistic achievement. He reminds the reader that a tool is just a tool, and it is still the artist's hand and creative vision that produce a work of art. (296 pages, 460 illustrations, 402 in color.) --J.P. Cohen

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A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney

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A self-portrait of this major artist, told through a wide-ranging series of interviews and conversations with Martin Gayford.

David Hockney’s exuberant work is widely loved and widely praised, but he is also an incisive and original thinker on art. Based on a series of conversations between Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford, this book distills the essence of the artist’s lifelong meditations on the problems and paradoxes of representing a three-dimensional world on a flat surface.

How does drawing make one “see things clearer and clearer and clearer still”? What significance do differing media, from a Lascaux cave wall to an iPad, have for the images we see? What is the relationship between the images we make and the reality around us? And how can we fully enjoy the pleasures of just looking—at trees, or faces, or sunrises?

These conversations are punctuated by wise and witty observations by both artist and interviewer on many other artists—Vermeer, Tiepolo, Caravaggio, Van Gogh, and Monet among them—and enlivened by shrewd insights into the contrasting social and physical landscapes of California, where Hockney spent so many years, and East Yorkshire, his birthplace, to which he has now returned. 100+ full-color illustrations

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Hockney's Pictures: The Definitive Retrospective

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The story of David Hockney, one of the most widely acclaimed of all living artists, is one of passion: passion for seeing, passion for telling, passion for images. But to these should be added the passion for life. Hockney's art is a celebration of what it is to be alive. All of his pictures-sometimes tender, as when he draws close friends and family; sometimes playful, as in his paintings of lazy, carefree days at the pool; sometimes awe-inspiring, as with his monumental images of the Grand Canyon-convey what it means to be in the world, to see it, to move in it, to love it. This constant exploration of how to communicate such feelings through his work emerges with particular clarity in this stunning, lively volume, which charts almost fifty years of extraordinary creativity. Hockney's Pictures is the first definitive "retrospective" to show the evolution and diversity of Hockney's prolific paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, and photography, including new and published works. The pieces, presented thematically, are selected and organized by David Hockney himself, and track Hockney's lifelong experiments in ways of looking and depicting. With 325 illustrations, accompanied by extensive quotes from the artist himself that illuminate the passionate thinking behind the work, Hockney's Pictures is destined to become a classic. David Hockney is Britain's most celebrated living artist and one of the most popular artists working today. His pieces are in the permanent collections of major museums internationally, and his book Secret Knowledge was one of the bestselling art books of 2001.

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True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney

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David Hockney: The Biography

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Drawing on exclusive and unprecedented access to David Hockney’s extensive archives, notebooks, and paintings, interviews with family, friends, and on Hockney himself, Christopher Simon Sykes provides a colorful and intimate portrait of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

Born in 1937, David Hockney grew up in a northern English town during the days of postwar austerity. By the time he was ten years old he knew he wanted to be an artist, and after leaving school he went on to study at Bradford Art College and later at the Royal College of Art in London. Bursting onto the scene at the Young Contemporaries exhibition, Hockney was quickly heralded as the golden boy of postwar British art and a leading proponent of pop art. It was during the swinging 60s in London that he befriended many of the seminal cultural figures of the generation and throughout these years Hockney's career grew. Always absorbed in his work, he drew, painted and etched for long hours each day, but it was a scholarship that led him to California, where he painted his iconic series of swimming pools. Since then, the most prestigious galleries across the world have devoted countless shows to his extraordinary work.

In the seventies he expanded his range of projects, including set and costume design for operas and experiments with photography, lithography, and even photocopying. Most recently he has been at the forefront the art world's digital revolution, producing incredible sketches on his iPhone and iPad, and it is this progressive thinking which has highlighted his genius, vigor and versatility as an artist approaching his 75th birthday.

In this, the first volume of Hockney’s biography, detailing his life and work from 1937 - 1975, Sykes explores the fascinating world of the beloved and controversial artist whose career has spanned and epitomized the art movements of the last five decades.

"The timing couldn't be better for this enjoyable and well-sourced book, which — like Hockney's own work — is both conversational and perceptive." —Los Angeles Times

"To read Christopher Simon Sykes' David Hockney is to marvel at the artistic gifts of the eccentric Yorkshireman who rose from a sometimes pinched childhood to hobnob with poet Stephen Spender and novelist Christopher Isherwood, to party with Mick Jagger and Manolo Blahnik." —The Plain Dealer

"Prodigiously entertaining." —Financial Times

“A chatty, knowledgeable, insider's biography, full of anecdotes.” —The Guardian
 

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