I’m quitting LA for France... they let me smoke in cafes, says Hockney
HE might have enjoyed a life basking in the Californian sunshine, but David Hockney says he is ready to live out the rest of his days in Normandy – because the French ‘know how to live’.
Britain’s greatest living artist, who moved to the US west coast in 1964, is spending more of the year at a French farmhouse he purchased a few months ago.
The 82-year-old said he has ‘not much time left’ and wants to spend it indulging in pleasures of painting, eating and smoking.
The last two activities, he points out, can be done at the same time more easily in cafes and restaurants in France – where, although smoking is banned inside, it is common to see plumes of smoke from diners on outside terraces.
In his farmhouse tucked away in the countryside near the city of Caen, northern France, Hockney wakes early to watch the sun rise, before spending the day and most of the evening working.
He says of his new life: ‘The French know how to live. They know about pleasure.
‘I’ve probably not much time left and because I don’t, I value it even more. I’d like to just work and paint. And to be able to smoke and eat in a restaurant at the same time. Thank God for Normandy.’
When asked about his decision to continue smoking, Bradford-born Hockney told the Wall Street Journal: ‘How much longer do I have? I’m going to die of either a smoking-related illness or a non–smoking-related illness.’
The artist has visited France many times over the years and even lived in Paris for a spell in the 1970s. He says his passion for the country was reignited during a holiday there last year.
He said Normandy was ‘lovely’ and he fell in love with the first property he looked at – a 17th century farmhouse. The studio attached to his home allows him to finish two or three times as much work as he has been, with sources saying the setting is a ‘complete inspiration’.
Hockney’s new work, completed in France, will be shown at the Pace Gallery in New York later this week, focusing on the arrival of spring in Normandy.