Displaying items by tag: Hockney

David Hockney: Royal Academy

It's an Olympic year for artists too, and first out of the blocks is David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy. Like the athletes competing in London this summer, Hockney – now a veteran at 74 – has spent the past four years pushing himself beyond his limits in preparation for what could be the defining test of his career. The result is one of the most ambitious shows in the Academy's 244-year history: more than 150 works, some of them gargantuan, more than 80% of which have been made specially for this exhibition and the particular spaces of this light-filled gallery.

For Edith Devaney, co-curator of the exhibition, the most invigorating part of the process has been watching the new paintings emerge first-hand. "Like David, we didn't know what to expect, but we knew it would be exciting," she says. "I remember him saying to me when we started off this process, 'We won't get this wrong.' And I thought, 'No, we won't.'"

Hockney has always dabbled in landscapes – notably his photo collages of the Grand Canyon and Pearblossom Highway in the 1980s and 90s when he was still in the States – but they have been a sustained focus of his work since he returned to live in Bridlington, East Yorkshire a decade ago. In recent years he has produced paintings at a complusive rate, first with watercolours then oils, and most recently on his iPhone and iPad. "David's not actually that interested in technology, he's just interested in other methods you can use to make art," she explains. "The work he did on his iPhone is charming, but the work he does on his iPad has the painterly quality of his oils – it's astonishing."

Another new direction for Hockney is his use of film. Showing as a world exclusive at the Royal Academy his films are created by nine high-definition cameras pointing in fractionally different directions – the result has been described as a "moving cubist collage".

"It has the same multiplicity of perspectives," says Devaney. "When you look at this film you feel as though you are seeing the world through David Hockney's eyes."

With Hockney's canny knack for self-promotion – he recently declined to paint the Queen because he was "very busy painting England actually, her country" – marketing expectations for the show are off the scale. As a private and independent institution, the Royal Academy is not obliged to supply a projected attendance, but there are whispers that A Bigger Picture could challenge the 1999 Monet exhibition, which hosted 813,000 visitors. Demand was so relentless back then that the Academy opened its doors 24 hours a day, a UK first. "In principle we'd do that again," says Jennifer Francis, head of press and marketing. "Certainly in the final few weeks, if we think people will be there at three in the morning."

Advertising for the show will have local, national and international targets – from buses in Bradford to the LA tourist board. "It's the first time I've bought space on buses up and down the country," says Francis. "There is a massive buzz about this exhibition."

1. LORDS JOHN AND BERNARD STEWART
by ANTHONY VAN DYCK
Many of van Dyck's greatest portraits were the ones he painted during his early career in Italy. However, he later moved to England and found fame for his paintings of the cavalier court of King Charles I. So influential were these paintings that we can now only imagine that period in history through his work. This portrait of Lord John Stuart and his brother Bernard is certainly imposing. It was painted around 1638, before both men were killed fighting for the Royalist side in the Civil War. Despite this, van Dyke's portrait actually portrays them as spoilt, arrogant cavaliers.

2. JAN SIX
by REMBRANDT
Perhaps I should have chosen a self-portrait of the great artist to include in my top ten. However, Rembrandt's amazing portrait of the Dutch scholar, Jan Six, has all the freedom of brushwork we usually associate with the painter Frans Hals. All the props have been dispensed with in this 1654 masterpiece. Here is a man who chose to be painted nonchalantly pulling on a pair of gloves. The bravura brushwork is unsurpassed. Six was a serious collector of art in all its forms during the golden age of the Netherlands. He owned a number of paintings by Rembrandt and was also a personal friend.

3. MR & MRS CLARK & PERCY
by DAVID HOCKNEY
A rare portrait that epitomises an era. Indeed, this 1970-71 portrait is an icon of the Swinging Sixties. It is understandably the most popular work in Tate Britain. This picture has all the elegance and casualness of a new age. However, beneath it lurks an uncertainty. This is perfectly caught in fashion designer Ossie Clark's quizzical, troubled glance. The painting shows Clark and his wife, Celia Birtwell, just after their wedding, at which Hockney was best man. It featured in the top ten of Radio 4's Greatest Paintings In Britain vote, in 2005.

4. SELF PORTRAIT
by VINCENT VAN GOGH
Van Gogh famously painted many self-portraits during the final years of his life. Self-portraits of artists are an absorbing genre but this tense one, painted in 1888, captures the artist only months before his mental breakdown. He was passionate about creating what he called 'the modern portrait'  -  something quite different from a photograph. This picture is a monument to self-examination, tense and brooding and, in its way, a landmark.

5. LA BELLA
by TITIAN
Titian's women are unashamedly sexy. He was a member of the 16th century Venetian school and one of the great portrait painters. Titian brought a fresh eye to women on canvas, depicting them as stunning, sensuous beauties. The Italian reflected this in his treatment of the flesh tones, as well as the tactile quality of their costume, in his oil on canvas paintings. La Bella was possibly a portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, painted in the 1530s. There are so many amazing portraits by Titian it is difficult to know which one to choose.