David Hockney: Back in LA

RADIO 4, 4.00PM

Martin Gayford, art critic and jazz fan, goes to Los Angeles to see David Hockney who returned there in 2013 after a decade back in his native Yorkshire ( good professionally, bad personally) and has found the switch transformative. Hockney has started painting portraits again, the results will go on show at the Royal Academy very soon. Each of the subjects (and Gayford is one) sits in the same chair, against the same background. This vivid documentary tells why and how the series evolved, gaining unexpected strength at each stage.