Intimate view of Hockney in exhibition of his life in portrait
‘Drawing is a more private activity. It reveals what’s going on behind closed doors’
THE National Portrait Gallery is to stage the first major exhibition of David Hockney’s drawings in 20 years, after a resurgence in appreciation for the intimate art form.
The exhibition next year will include around 150 portraits of five key subjects, and includes previously unseen works and sketchbooks from Hockney’s school days in Bradford.
It will reflect a renewed interest in the “private” nature of drawings and feature portraits in pencil, pastel, ink and watercolour, as well as a selection taken with a Polaroid camera and using iphone and ipad apps. They come from public and private collections or from 81-year-old Hockney himself.
Highlights will include a selection of drawings from “an intense period of self-scrutiny” during the 1980s, when Hockney created a self-portrait every day over a period of two months. Other subjects include his muse Celia Birtwell, the fashion designer; his mother Laura; and friends.
Sarah Howgate, the curator, said: “This intimate journey in line demonstrates and celebrates the master draughtsman that David remains to this day.” Ms Howgate said there had been a “real resurgance of interest in drawing”, which had fallen out of fashion in art schools for decades. She said visitors were “really fascinated” by the medium, which allowed them to see “behind the scenes” as an artist worked.
“Drawing is a more private activity,” she said. “It reveals what’s going on behind the closed doors of a studio – and that’s what’s really special about this exhibition.”
The exhibition seeks to show how Hockney’s drawing has often been a testing ground for ideas later played out in his paintings.
Nicholas Cullinan, the National Portrait Gallery director, said: “By focusing on Hockney as a supreme draughtsman and his intimate and revealing sustained depictions of sitters over time (including himself), the exhibition will demonstrate his constant and continuing ingenuity with portrait drawings which reference both tradition and technology.” David Hockney: Drawing From Life
will run at the National Portrait Gallery in London from February 27 to June 28 2020.