DAVID HOCKNEY

Biography


1937 Born in Bradford, Yorkshire. One of five children. Apart from a six month war-time evacuation he spends his entire childhood in Yorkshire.

1948 Attends Bradford Grammar School

1953-57 Studies at Bradford School of Art, graduates with a distinction.

1957-59 As a conscientious objector works in hospitals in Bradford and Hastings to fulfil his National Service obligation.

1959-62 Studies at The Royal College of Art, London where he meets RB Kitaj and other artists that were founders of Pop Art in Britain.

1960 Whilst still at college exhibits in the 'Young Contemporaries' and 'London Group' exhibitions which brings his work to the attention of the London public.
Meets John Kasmin who would later (1963) become his London gallery.

1961-62 Makes series of etchings 'A Rakes Progress' after visiting New York for the first time.
Paints the walls of the 'Teenagers Room' for the cruise ship 'Canberra'.
Travels to Italy, Munich and Berlin.

1963 First solo exhibition at the Kasmin Gallery, London with whom he was to show regularly thereafter.
The Sunday Times commissions Hockney to travel to Egypt to produce drawings for their magazine which however were never published.
Travels to New York where he meets Henry Geldzahler and
Andy Warhol.
Visits Los Angeles for the first time.

1964 Moves to Los Angeles. Makes first Swimming Pool paintings. Begins using photographs as studies for paintings and working with acrylic paint.
First solo exhibition in New York at the Alan Gallery.


1965-66 Designs the sets and costumes for Alfred Jarry's 'Ubu Roi' at the Royal Court Theatre.
Produces the colour lithographs 'A Hollywood Collection' in California and the etchings 'Illustrations for the Fourteen Poems from CP Cavafy' after visiting Beirut.

1965-66 Solo exhibitions include the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kasmin Gallery, London and Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

1967 Paints 'A Bigger Splash'.
Wins first prize at the John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool.

1968 Increasingly uses his own photographs as studies for his paintings. solo exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Included in Documenta IV, Kassel and XXXIV Venice Biennale. Moves back to London.

1969 Works on the suite of etchings 'Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm'. Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg.
Solo exhibitions include the Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York with whom he shows regularly thereafter.

1970 First retrospective exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (which later tours to Hanover, Rotterdam and Belgrade). Begins work on 'Mr & Mrs Clarke and Percy' which he finishes the following year.

1971-72 Extensive travelling to Morocco, USA, Europe, Japan and South East Asia.

1973-75 Hockney moves to Paris. Focus of interest shifts from painting to drawing and print-making.
Retrospective exhibition held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris opens in 1974.
Designs sets and costumes for 'The Rakes Progress' for Glyndebourne.
Solo exhibitions include Garage Art, London.

1976 Travels to USA.
Later visits Australia and the South Sea Islands. Produces a series of large scale lithographs in Los Angeles.
Works on etchings to illustrate 'The Man with the Blue Guitar' by Wallace Stevens.
Solo exhibitions include Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles.


1978 Produces 'Paper Pools' a series using coloured paper pulp. Decides to settle in Los Angeles. Travels to Egypt. Death of his father.
The exhibition of his drawings and prints 'Travels with Pen, Pencil and Ink' begins it's extensive three year tour of USA, Canada and Britain.
Designs 'The Magic Flute' for Glyndebourne.
Solo exhibitions include LA Louver Gallery, Venice, California with whom he has regularly shown ever since.

1980 For the Metropolitan Opera New York designs sets and costumes for the triple bill of Satie's 'Parade', Poulenc's 'Les Mamelles de Tiresias' and Ravel's 'L'Enfant et les Sortileges'.
Solo exhibitions include Knoedler/Kasmin Gallery, London with whom he exhibits regularly until the gallery's closure in 1991.

1981 Designs sets and costumes for the Stravinsky triple bill (Le Sacre du Printemps, Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Travels to China with Stephen Spender. 'A New Spirit in Painting' at the Royal Academy of Arts, London includes three new paintings including the important 'Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio'. Selects 'The Artist's Eye' exhibition at the National Gallery, London.

1982 Produces his first composite Polaroids and photo-collages which are shown in New York and extensively elsewhere including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

1983 'Hockney Paints the Stage' a major exhibition is shown at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and then tours elsewhere in North America, Mexico and London where it is shown at the Hayward Gallery in 1985.
First solo exhibitions at Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, and Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, both at which he continues to show regularly thereafter.

1984-85 After a break of almost four years begins to paint intensively again producing a large number of paintings and prints which show the influence of Chinese scrolls and his photo-collages.
Solo exhibitions now average 10-15 annually.

1986 Completes 'Pearblossom Highway, 11-18 April 1986', his final photo- collage which is a culmination of his experiments with photography.
Makes homemade prints on office copy machines in his L.A. studio. Begins work on the designs for 'Tristan and Isolde' for the Los Angeles Music Center, to premiere in 1987.


1988 A major retrospective of his work is held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and subsequently is shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and at the Tate Gallery, London
Begins making prints using a fax machine.

1989 Shows fax works at the Biennale Sao Paulo and at other venues worldwide. Produces his first computer drawings.

1990-92 Begins work on Lyric Opera of Chicago production of 'Turandot' and Royal Opera House production of 'Die Frau Ohne Schatten' performed
in 1992.
Starts the series 'Some Very New Paintings'.

1993-96 Extended period of portrait drawing. Produces a number of 'Abstract' paintings in addition to a series of small paintings of his two dogs Stanley and Boodgie.
Solo exhibitions include the 1853 Gallery in Saltaire (1994). Major retrospective of his drawings held at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, travelling to the Royal Academy of Arts, London and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Creates 'Snails Space' with Vari-lites. 'Painting as Performance' shown with recent paintings at the Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York and recent graphics and paintings at the Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
Solo exhibitions also include Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Manchester City Art Gallery and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

1997 New still life paintings, portraits and self portraits form largest London private gallery exhibition ‘Flowers, Faces and Spaces’ at Annely Juda Fine Art, London. Experiments with new techniques on a series of prints of flowers, chairs, portraits and self portraits.
In June and July, on return journeys by car between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, he absorbs the immensity of the landscapes of the American West. While in England at the end of July he begins to paint 7 ‘condensed landscape’ views of the Yorkshire countryside including a view of Salts Mill at Saltaire which he continues to work on in Los Angeles in autumn.

1997 - 98 Major retrospective of his photo works is shown at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne and subsequently tours to Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin.

1998 ‘Local Views by Local Artist for a Local Lad’ exhibition is shown at Salts Mill from January to April. The Yorkshire landscape paintings are then exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Produces studies in charcoal and oil before beginning to paint panoramic views of the Grand Canyon composed of 15 to 60 canvases.

From February until its exhibition at the National Museum in Washington DC in June Hockney works on ‘A Bigger Grand Canyon’. This painting also formed the centre piece of his exhibition ‘Looking at Landscape / Being in Landscape’ at the L.A. Louver Gallery in Los Angeles. To verify the veracity of his representation he returns to the site with Gregory and Celia. During the summer, after his return from a trip to Europe, he begins a new panoramic version ‘A Closer Grand Canyon’ which had already been formed in his imagination from drawings of the 200 degree angle without reference to photography.

1999 In January three exhibitions are shown simultaneously in Paris: ‘David Hockney. Espace Paysage’ at the Centre Georges Pompidou, ‘Dialogue avec Picasso’ at the Musée Picasso and ‘David Hockney Photographies’ at the Maison Européene de la Photographie.

Six Grand Canyon paintings form part of the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, where they win the exhibition's annual Wollaston award.

The Pace Gallery, New York exhibits 'Recent Etchings by David Hockney' before the show moves to the Alan Cristea Gallery, London.

In April and May pastels of the Grand Canyon are shown together with other works on paper at the Richard Gray Gallery, New York. 'David Hockney. Space & Line' then moved to Annely Juda Fine Art, London where the exhibition included an additional series of 56 recent portraits drawn with the aid of a camera lucida.

1999/2000 Between December 1999 and January 2000 Hockney makes 'camera lucida' drawings of twelve guards of the National Gallery, London. These form part of the exhibition Encounters: New Art from Old which takes place at the National Gallery from 14 June to 17 September 2000.

2001 Group exhibition, Works on paper from Acconci to Tittel, 27 June - 15 September, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

2003 Solo Exhibition, Painting on Paper, 17 January - 1 March, Annely Juda Fine Art, London.
National Portrait Gallery, London shows Five Double Portraits by David Hockney, 16 January - 29 June 2003