What it’s like to be pop art, by Ed the pop artist
BEFORE becoming Britain’s biggest pop star, Ed Sheeran was perhaps the country’s biggest fan of pop art legend David Hockney.
And nearly two decades after a tenyear-old Sheeran first got in contact with his idol, the singer finally got the chance to sit for a portrait.
Both Hockney and Sheeran grew up in West Yorkshire, with the painter hailing from Bradford and the singer from Halifax. Sheeran, 28, said: ‘We were born in the same area in the UK, so I was super familiar with his art from a young age.
‘I had made a school project on him when I was ten that I wanted to give him – that’s how we originally got in touch.’
Sheeran said they have stayed in touch ever since, and have met ‘a few times’ when he passed through Los Angeles, where Hockney has lived on and off since the 1960s.
Sheeran has previously described meeting Hockney for the first time in 2017 as an ‘absolute honour’, and shared a picture of the pair dining together on his Instagram account.
Now one of the world’s most successful singers, Sheeran sat for Hockney during a three-hour session, the results of which are being shown in the UK for the first time next month.
The portrait of Sheeran, which shows him reclining in a chair wearing a white T-shirt and displaying some of his numerous tattoos, was first unveiled in Los Angeles last year.
Sheeran said: ‘He suggested I come and sit for him one day before a show,’ adding he ‘loved’ the session and how Hockney gets ‘so much joy from art’ which he creates with a ‘constant smile and constant lit cigarette’.
Sheeran added: ‘I was brought up surrounded by art, with both parents working as curators and lecturers on art, so as soon as I started earning my own money and being able to travel to galleries and collect it, I’ve been diving deeper into it.’
The portrait will go on display in an exhibition titled Video Brings Its Time to You, You Bring Your Time To Paintings And Drawings at Annely Juda Fine Art in Mayfair, central London, from February 28. It will hang alongside portraits of Hockney’s friends and associates, including one of US pop star Bruno Mars. The exhibition will also include drawings of Hockney’s sister Margaret and Scarlett Clark, the granddaughter of his long-time muse and 1960s style icon, Celia Birtwell.
‘A constant smile and constant lit cigarette’