Is Hockney really a good Artist ?

Just watched it on the news. Looked like a load of old b0llocks to me, but then a lot of art is.

Well he ain't in his prime any more, is he?

The stuff he did in the late 60s and early 70s is very good, when he painted large figurative paintings with the new acrylic paints. But apart from those, he is over-rated.

I've still got that photo of him Vel. Remember that discussion, maybe a year ago?

"Art History for Dummies" is a really good book for those starting out on the appreciation of Art.  Re Hockney, he's been going six decades so emperor's OLD clothes might be more appropriate.

Have to say - with all this contemporary art, it's not about the art or artist at all - it's all about who is selling and buying it...that's the "secret" about modern art...it's about hype, crazes and fashions. The art itself is just another currency.

Yes, Kenny - I remember - I think if you contacted him - say you wrote a hand written letter - he might send a hand written letter back...write care of the art gallery he is showing at.

Velasquez - haven't we been here before?  Don't you like the late landscapes? I liked, but wasn't blown away by the 2012 exhibition, but the public certainly voted with their feet, here and across Europe.

Off to the Saatchi tomorrow to see Exhibitionism (The Stones) and hope to immerse myself (not literally) in Richard Wilson's 20-50 oil if it is still there.

I'll put it on my to do list. I did actually phone his mum, Laura, when my aunt died,as they were good friends,  but she had moved from Scarborough I think it was.His dad went tyo the same grammar school in Bradford as my sister.

It's okay, he keeps going, doesn't he? I think the public like a bit of colour. I saw that oil thing years ago, at the old Saatchi gallery...strong smell.

Or should I say procrastinaton list.

Kenny - ffs - you need to write to the guy - I'd bet he'd write back just because of the nostalgia factor.

Mr.D. Hokerley

c/o
Pace Gallery
537 West 24th Street
New York

ok I will, thanks. He's probably got the same photo though.I'm sure his mum would have got a copy.

10 quid is about it for me for a bit of brushwork

Mr.D. Hokerley?

Velasquez.      I thinks its better than "keeping going" but each to his own.

Re the oil, I seem to remember reading ha he saved about £25k by using used oil instead of fresh. Still bloody amazing though.
http://www.saatchigallery.com/current/richard_wilson_20_50.htm

Scan and print a COPY of the photo...or even get a photocopy made...I don't think you guys realize just how artists like Hockney love looking at photos and the like. Most of his art is photo-based one way or another. Just be dead polite and explain your own history with the photo.

Hand written reply would be - ding ding - 3 lemons

Kenny - NO! NOT Mr. D. Hokerley!!

Just thinking here...you could buy Ye Olde Basildon Bond paper, and use Quink ink with a NIB pen...

BTW - Don't all you Muhammad Ali fans realize that, if you wrote to or phoned Ali, he would generally reply if he was able?

Well he ain't in his prime any more, is he?

The stuff he did in the late 60s and early 70s is very good, when he painted large figurative paintings with the new acrylic paints. But apart from those, he is over-rated.


Spot-on. The great Brian Sewell (PBUH) was a big fan of his earlier work.

Me too...he was very clever, the way he used acrylic paint. He put a lot of thought and effort into those paintings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_and_Mrs_Clark_and_Percy#/media/File:Hockney.clark-percy.jpg

I liked everything about this picture except the name of the cat, so we changed it to the name of their other cat, or some such words

ok, I'll put it the top of my list. Vel. Cheers.

What a lovely white cat. I hope they put sunscreen behind the ears on it in summer.

Piero della Francesca isn't mentioned in that article, but I reckon he was a big influence, rather than Jan Van Eyck.

The figures are stiff and formal, like Piero.

Velasquez - absolutely agree (new to me, re this picture), and I have always thought that the light was very reminiscent of Gainsborough's famous Mr and Mrs Andrews.

Yes! That's a great call, Blackbarn. There are strong colours there, too.

There's a film from the 60s showing Hockney - he used photos and a projector to do that painting.

Yeah, a child's idea of PdF.  I don't care for much of his recent stuff - if given a portrait or one of his rural Yorkshire scenes you might put it up in a guest bedroom.  But some of his Californian output caught the interaction of sun, sky, concrete and water like few others - those shades of blue and yellow, and everything arid and sun-baked.  Couldn't paint a splash for toffee though.

Modern art, eh? I've never got over Tracey Emin being appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy.  I mean, it's the kind of thing I would have done when out of my mind on British sherry (hurrah!) and wanting to destroy civilization.

I agree that the splashes aren't very splash-like, but I think he was having a joke there, with the idea of spending weeks painting an event that happens in a fraction of a second.

Or, as art critics would say, he was being "witty"...

One of the most popular and influential British artists of the 20th century returns to Tate Britain for his most comprehensive exhibition yet

This exhibition gathers together an extensive selection of David Hockney’s most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, Hockney continues to change his style and ways of working, embracing new technologies as he goes. From his portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, through to his drawings and photography, Yorkshire landscapes and most recent paintings – some of which have never be seen before in public  –  this exhibition shows how the roots of each new direction lay in the work that came before. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to see these unforgettable works together.


VENUE

Tate Britain
Millbank
London
SW1P 4RG
Plan your visit

DATES

9 February – 29 May 2017

Others will do a better job on the "splash" than me, but I may come back.

Re Emin's drawings, well here goes, (wait for the flak), I'd venture that some are a match for Schiele and he's regarded by nearly everyone as a genius.

Or, as this critic would say, he couldn't paint a splash for toffee.  We would have swooned over a splash by PdF.

Wow, just thought of a topic for an art PhD - Splashes in Early Renaissance Art  Should concentrate on baptisms, flagellations and beheadings - plenty of acreage there.

I just think she is fookin' rubbish...90% of the posters on here could do better than her if they wielded a pencil for one year.

Schiele was a genius (and far more erotic) - Emin can't draw for toffee. 

That's (at least) the third toffee from me tonight.  And I hate the stuff.  What's going on?

btw...in art school, they do exercises like BLIND DRAWING where you don't look at the paper you're drawing on.

to be a great artist you have to be different, or you have to be part of a group that has discovered something different.
The last british artist to do this was L.S Lowry

I think the best actual drawer - or draughtsman - of the 20th century was probably the comic book artist Jack Kirby...he was a one-off, with immense natural talent...mind you, he couldn't paint for...toffee.

its different from being a good draughtsman.

its easy to draw well

No it ain't!

i don`t mean its easy, not for me. I just mean its not art.

Aye it is !

its very difficult to come up with a new idea.

there are tens of thousands of people who can draw well.
very few of them are artists and probably none are great

I would say that, in all the time I've spent with artists - and I've met thoosands of the boogers - only ONE artist had a natural facilty for drawing - a Chinese guy called Danny...and that is it.

yes thats quite possible.

If you're at one end of the autism (= human) spectrum, it is.  The right combination of neuronal connections can make you reproduce what you see perfectly.  Given that what we see is a total construct of our brains and exists nowhere else, especially not in reality (whatever that is).

I need another drink.  I like to think of it as an aid to conceptual art.

the chinese are very good at producing copies, but i can`t really think of a great chinese artist, there may be one or two

Chen Yi Fei (of China!) was the best contemporary exhibition I ever attended.

i will take a look

Or Chen Yifei...the reproductions don't do this guy justice...the paint is half an inch thick in places.

he hasn`t thought of anything that i couldn`t have thought of myself

Well, he ain't thinking - he's LOOKING!

Chen died young and the prices rocketed into millions...

Great art is something that keeps you looking - either keeping your brain working trying to figure out what's going on, or stunning you with beauty/perfection, the wisdom of age, or horror.  It's our input that makes it great.  We deserve a cut.

Wow - by annoying You Tube coincidence I'm listening to Vincent.  You have to love a man who never sold a picture in his lifetime - is that true?

I'm pretty sure he sold quite a few, despite the mythology...his brother was a dealer too...

If only we could have art without the dealers.  I suppose that's like saying if only we could have digestion without ars*holes.

Sooner, rather than later, it will be possible to reproduce masterpieces perfectly, down to the smallest brushstroke.  What will you have on your wall then Vel?  Apart from Velasquez, obviously.

Erm...photos of VW Beetles...and...old ships with sails...

Got THE ETHIOPIAN and THE WEST AUSTRALIAN on the wall behind me...

Smart reply - equivalent to not letting anyone have access to your hair, nails and blood just in case ...

Montague Dawson...need lottery £$££$

"...and there will be no more sea."
------------------------------------

Good night Buddy!

The ship being, as it were, a symbol of the soul's journey in this troubled world.

I prefer the Morningtown ride ...

Was that goodnight?  If so, goodnight.

Before tonight, I had no idea Kate Bush had done a version of Sexual Healing.  Not awful.

the Americans/CIA noticed that the art market was dominated
by foreign art. So they sponsored artists/modern art to
create wealth in the USA.

Art works became a stock.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html