16 August 2023 , 19:23
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As bright and vibrant as the pop art he creates, 86-year-old David Hockney has vowed to carry on painting into his nineties.
The chain-smoking Yorkshireman, Britain’s greatest living artist, gave an ebullient interview before he turned 86 on July 9, telling Melvyn Bragg on Sky Arts: “I’m 85 now. Maybe I’ve got six years. I don’t know. Like Picasso. I mean I walk slower, I have a bit of difficulty moving around. But that’s not affecting my hand, my eye and my heart.”
Born in Bradford, West Yorks and crossing the border to live in Bridlington, East Yorks, Hockney is famous for his Yorkshire landscapes. For many years he divided his time between his home county and Los Angeles, where the bright sunshine set the scene for some of his greatest works such as The Splash and A Bigger Splash, featuring pool scenes.
But now he lives in Normandy, France, where he enjoys the quiet. He says: “Normandy is okay for me now. I mean, it’s a bit like Yorkshire. It is very green. There’s not many people living there... lots of fields. I don’t go out much in Normandy. But I didn’t really go out much in LA. I stopped going to restaurants before the smoking ban because of the noise... I’m going seriously deaf.”
David with A Bigger Splash (Getty Images)Hockney is still a prolific painter, recently making headlines with a portrait of pop star Harry Styles. But he has experimented with other media – drawing, printmaking, watercolour, photography, collage. He has also created artwork on a fax machine and iPads and iPhones.
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Earlier this year Hockney created a new show in London’s Kings Cross area called Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) in which his work is projected on the four huge walls around the viewers. He thinks the idea could revolutionise cinema.
He tells Bragg: "From Kings Cross [new show] I have worked out how we could do operas. There is one opera 45 minutes long. L’enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel. And I've already seen how it could be staged in one of these things, but you need the singers and an orchestra of course.
Hockney paints Harry Styles (© David Hockney)"Having worked on this now in a big grey big space I'm realising what you can do. I'm hoping there will be some young people going to see this who will realise how you could do films differently. With four walls not just one. And I'm sure you can, but it will take a bit of working out but I hope somebody will do that. I might be able to do it but maybe not."
Hockney also reveals to Bragg that filmmaker Tony Richardson came to regret sending back A Bigger Splash after buying it.
With a grin, Hockney chuckle to Braggs: “"The third one which was the biggest one, I used quite small brushes. I'm sure I took two weeks to paint this thing that lasts a fraction of a second[a splash]. But I was amused by that, I liked that idea. When it was exhibited in 1968 the price was 800 pounds, a lot of money then I thought, and Tony Richardson(Filmmaker) had it delivered to his house in Egerton crescent. That's where he was living then after the success of Tom Jones(film) and things.
But he sent it back because he said 'I don't really like Hollywood'. So he sent it back and then he told me later it was the daftest thing he ever did." The painting, priced at £800 in 1968, is now owned by the Tate and thought to be worth millions.
* Sky Arts’ collection of Hockney films air on Sky Arts, Freeview and NOW from August 28.