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Opening reception: Thursday 8 April, 6-8 p.m.
Venice, CA – L.A. Louver is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent inkjet
printed computer drawings on paper by David Hockney. The exhibition will include
over a dozen portraits of the artist’s family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances.
David Hockney has made portraits throughout his entire career. They are the subject
of some of his most famous works such as Beverly Hills Housewife, 1966, and
Mr. And Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1970-71 (Collection of Tate, London). In this new
series, Hockney draws both single figures, as well as double portraits that seek to
reveal aspects of the couples’ interpersonal relationship. As with all portraits, the
relationship between sitter/s and artist emerges beyond the subjects themselves.
Faces are the most interesting thing we see; other people fascinate me,
and the most interesting aspect of other people – the point where we go
inside them – is the face. It tells all. ------ David Hockney
Hockney is renown for his continual quest and exploration of new technologies to harness in his art making: from the
“home made prints” that he made in the mid-1980s using an early Xerox machine, faxes, and SX-70 Polaroid film,
to his recent adoption of iPhone technology. However, it has been only in the last couple of years that Hockney has
considered computer software sufficiently advanced to “keep up” with the artist’s hand, and to allow both ease of use,
as well as sensitivity and nuance of color and line. Using a graphic tablet and tablet pen, this new software also allows
Hockney to switch color more rapidly than with brushes, and to enlarge areas of the composition so that he can achieve
refinement of detail.
Unlike the landscape drawings he has made using this technology (shown at L.A, Louver 26 February through 28
March, 2009), Hockney’s portraits do not include photographic elements. Rather, he uniquely employs computer technology
to draw elements in the same manner as he might use paint, with the impression of color washes and translucent
overlays. Some elements are high articulated, such as the face in A Bigger Maurice Payne, 2008, while others remain
gestural, more suggested that defined, as in the hands of Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, 2008. Once complete, the
portraits are printed in small editions (edition sizes range from 12 to 30) on inkjet printers. The prints are large in format,
ranging in scale from 49 x 33 1/2 inches (124 x 85 cm) to 64 x 43 inches (162 x 109 cm.). Several of the portraits
are printed in two sizes. The figures portrayed in the portraits include Hockney’s siblings, Paul and Margaret Hockney,
and friends, Sir Tatton Sykes, Dr. Elizabeth Barton, Peter Goulds and friends Michele and John Spike.
Concurrent to: David Hockney: more drawing in a printing machine, 8 April through 8 May 2010: First Floor Gallery:
Charles Garabedian: Recent Paintings, 8 April through 8 May 2010, Skyroom: Rogue Wave Projects presents
Olga Koumoundouros: Hard Times: owed to Studs Terkel and all of that, 8 April through 26 June 2010.
For more information and visuals, please contact Elizabeth East, L.A. Louver, 45 North Venice Boulevard, Venice,
CA, USA; www.lalouver.com; tel: 310-822-4955; fax: 310-821-7529; e-mail: Elizabeth@lalouver.com
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