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Keen observer, critical analyst, creative interpreter, ... a simply brilliant artist

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao recently introduced for the first time in Spain, David Hockney works, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

The galleries Annely Juda Fine Art, L.A. Louver, Richard Gray Gallery and Salts Mill: The 1853 Gallery exhibit the works of the artist, stage designer and photographer   David Hockney, who, in accordance with the times, he uses an iPad as a tool for art. His exhibits are cheerful, colorful, and fun, while also with a vision which goes deeper than the Naïve or decorative art.

He has a lucid simplicity, without neglecting beauty or the analytical gaze. Hockney’s art  guides us through the light to discover that we didn’t know what he does. And with the same penetration, he discovers how to accentuate, criticize, correct and interpret the environment. Even though we have never seen his work, it has much in common with us.

David Hockney is simply brilliant. His works are among the most recognized and expensive of British artists. Born on July 9, 1937, the same year in which Pablo Picasso painted the Guernica. While still an art student at the Royal College of Art, his work was featured in an exhibition titled “Young Contemporaries” sharing the halls with Peter Blake which was an introduction of the powerful appearance of Pop Art. In his early work, Hockney is influenced by Francis Bacon, another devoted to contemporary British painting. Later on, they influenced each other, and in this exchange, Hockney acquired some expressionist elements.

In the sixties he traveled to the United States. There, he met Andy Warhol the first time he visited New York, in 1961. Later, in England, he taught at the Maidstone College of Art, and taught welding at the University of Iowa in the United States. In 1963, the famous British art dealer John Casmin started representing him. In 1964 he decided to move to California and a change in his painting is perceived. What was he painting? Swimming pools, of course.

What is most interesting is how he perceives the pools, what he to discovers in them, how many colors and shapes he can communicate in his paintings, photographs, collages and drawings. His “Splash” collection continues to cause admiration; it’s something that is achieved only by the geniuses; to be able to surprise the future. After all, art summarizes the present and predicts the future, David Hockney does this in many ways. To admire his works should be mandatory, for it adds such wealth to the soul of the viewers.

Finally, the great benefit that David Hockney offers is that by being so clever, so curious and so artistic, he has created works of very diverse styles. It is impossible to get bored with Hockney.

 

David Hockney’s only official website:  http://www.hockneypictures.com/

Text: Alfonso López Collada ± Foto: MoMA