David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, OM CH RAis an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. An important contributor to the Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth9 July 1937
meaningful drawing lovely
Before he did all those lovely line drawings, Matisse would make really detailed charcoal drawings and tear them up. He wouldn't leave them about... I understand what he was doing: discovering what's there... to make the line meaningful, to find a linear solution...
concerned growing health pubs throughout
It's really about liberty. I'm very concerned about a growing intolerance and bossiness throughout society. Pubs are not health clubs.
bit calms deciding decisions exciting fancy
Smoking, ... calms me down. And it's enjoyable. A little bit of what you fancy does you good. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life. These are decisions you make yourself, not government.
becoming bit channels collage move sees television
Television is becoming a collage -- there are so many channels that you move through them making a collage yourself. In that sense, everyone sees something a bit different.
creating drive health pubs suburban
Pubs aren't health clubs. To me, we're creating a suburban dreariness that would drive me mad.
education people brain
The only people who need degrees are dentists and brain surgeons.
art believe mean
I have always believed that art should be a deep pleasure...ther e is always, everywhere, an enormous amount of suffering. But I believe my duty as an artist is to overcome and alleviate the sterility of despair...New ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling... I do believe that painting can change the world.
law ideas perspective
Perspective is a law of optics... The Chinese did not have a system like it. Indeed, it is said they rejected the idea of the vanishing point in the eleventh century, because it meant the viewer was not there, indeed, had no movement, therefore was not alive.
photography war editing
With chemical film, it was possible to alter photographs, but you had to be an expert. That's not true any more. The LA Times fired a photographer at the beginning of the Iraq War for editing two shots together. Photography is crumbling. Certainly it is for the newspapers a bit now, isn't it? There will be painting again, absolutely!
thinking doubt century
I think Picasso was, without doubt, the greatest portraitist of the 20th century, if not any other century.
want rich thrilling
I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is.
teaching people looks
Teaching people to draw is teaching people to look
way cameras moments
The way we see things is constantly changing. At the moment the way we see things has been left a lot to the camera. That shouldn't necessarily be.
cameras difficult effects
How difficult it is to learn not to see like cameras, which has had such an effect on us. The camera sees everything at once. We don't.