David Hockney

Documentary | 2017 | NR. 1hr 25min
DIRECTOR: Phil Grabsky EXHIBITION ON SCREEN

David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts:

A Bigger Picture 2012 & 82 Portraits and One Still Life 2016

Widely considered Britainâ€™s most popular artist, David Hockney is a global sensation with

exhibitions in London, New York, Paris and beyond attracting millions of visitors

worldwide. The latest film in the EXHIBITION ON SCREEN series allows up-close access to

this 21st-century master and his two recent blockbuster exhibitions held at the Royal

Academy of Arts in London.

Featuring intimate and in-depth interviews with Hockney the film offers rare insights into

the man behind such iconic works as A Bigger Splash and A Closer Grand Canyon. In

conversation with Tim Marlow (Artistic Director at the Royal Academy of Arts), Hockney

reveals anecdotes from across his artistic and personal life - from his first trip abroad to

Egypt in 1963, to the effects of the death of his close friend Jonathan Silver in 1997, right

up to today.

For A Bigger Picture Hockney returned to his native Yorkshire. This return to home was

cathartic for Hockney and saw him capture the changing landscape through the seasons,

using new techniques, not least iPad drawings and video. Four years later for 82 Portraits

and One Still Life, Hockney also adopted a new mode of working, inviting sitters to his

studio with a strict deadline of three days for each portrait. The 82 finished paintings are

themselves one complete work.

The film also provides a rare chance to explore two of Hockney's landmark exhibitions

from his late career, guided by the exhibitions' curatorial team and the artist himself. A

Royal Academician since 1991, Hockney has a close relationship with the institution,

creating both exhibitions specifically for the gallery spaces and thus making them entirely

unique shows.

Movie

Reviews

[Hockney is] still full of energy, curiosity and the desire to see the world afresh.

Tim Marlow

[He] put figurative art back centre stage.

Martin Gayford

The quintessential British artist.

Jonathan Jones