David Hockney, an English painter, printmaker, draftsman, stage designer, and photographer, was born on July 9, 1937.
David is considered among the most influential British painters of the 20th century because of his significant role in the ’60s pop art movement. Hockney has owned homes and studios in Bridlington, London, and two homes in California, where he has occasionally lived since 1964.
David Hockney Quotes On Photography
(Here are 15 David Hockney quotes on photography!! Keep reading for more such inspiring and motivational quotes.)
David Hockney was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, as the fourth of five children to Laura and Kenneth Hockney. John Loker, Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Norman Stevens, and Paul Lisle were some of his classmates at Bradford Grammar School, Wellington Primary School, and Bradford College of Art.
At the Royal College of Art, he first met R. B. Kitaj in London. Hockney asserted that while there, he felt at ease and was proud of his work.
"Enjoyment of the landscape is a thrill. Nature, never, never let's you down, it's not a cliché, nature isn't a cliché, pictures might be, but you can get tired of pictures."
"There is nothing wrong with photography if you don't mind the perspective of a paralysed Cyclops."
"I've finally figured out what's wrong with photography. It's a one-eyed man looking through a little 'ole. Now, how much reality can there be in that?"
"I think people have a deep desire to make pictures."
"But slowly I began to use cameras and then think about what it was that was going on. It took me a long time, I mean I actually played with cameras and photography for about 20 years."
"The camera can't see space. It sees surfaces. People see space, which is much more interesting."
"If we are to change our world view, images have to change."
"I think probably something big can be done with cameras; I'm not saying, er, I'm saying chemical photography's finished, that means you can't have a Cartier Bresson again; you need never believe pictures."
"But the moment you use an ordinary camera, you are not seeing the picture, remember, meaning, you had to remember what you've taken."
"I think photography has made us see the landscape in a very dull way – that's one of its effects. It's not spatial."
"The technology won't make the pictures different, but someone using it will."
"Photography is crumbling. Certainly, it is for the newspapers a bit now, isn't it? There will be painting again, absolutely!"
"The convention of the blur comes from photography; it's what happens when motion is compressed onto a chemical plate."
David Hockney Quotes On Art
Hockney has two properties in California, where he has lived since 1964, and residences and studios in Bridlington, London. There are offices and archives on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, and these residences are situated in the Hollywood Hills and Malibu, respectively.
"No matter what the illusion created, it is a flat canvas, and it has to be organized into shapes."
"I believe that the very process of looking can make a thing beautiful."
"Most art will disappear. The past is edited, so it always looks clearer to us. Today always looks a bit of a jumble. We'll put up with rubbish from now, but not with rubbish from the past."
-'Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney In Normandy'
"What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something because, of course, art is about sharing. You wouldn't be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought."
"Art has to move you, and design does not unless it's a good design for a bus."
"I was aware that the teaching of drawing was being stopped almost 30 years ago. And I always said, 'The teaching of drawing is the teaching of looking'. A lot of people don't look very hard."
"I have always believed that art should be a deep pleasure. I think there is a contradiction in an art of total despair because the very fact that the art is made seems to contradict despair."
"In art, new ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling; you can't divorce the two, as, we are now aware, you cannot have time without space and space without time."
"And then I went round the corner and there's a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it's not the level of Van Gogh."
"You wouldn't be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought."
"It takes a long time to make it simple. If you see the world as beautiful, thrilling, and mysterious as I think I do, then you feel quite alive."
"Artists, real artists, have to work. They can't be hedonists. Really good painters are always working. The world is such a marvelous place. You have to look and to work. That's exactly why Van Gogh was such a great artist: total commitment. That's what you need."
"So someone who's never met you before is seeing a different person. That's bound to be the case. We all see something different. I assume most people don't look very hard at anything."
David Hockney Quotes On Life
Self-portraits, other people's portraits, and serene incidental pictures of his friends and house, like Portrait Of An Artist, were all autobiographical topics that Hockney frequently painted. His still lifes likewise have these objects' easy elegance and peaceful brightness. In the ’80s, Hockney explored photography, creating intricate photo collages.
"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."
"I think I'm greedy, but I'm not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I'm greedy for an exciting life. I want it to be exciting all the time, and I get it, actually."
-'A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney'.
"Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it."
"I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life."
"We need all kinds of artists. We have no need to destroy drawing. We lose so much. This wouldn't happen in music."
"Faces are the most interesting things we see; other people fascinate me, and the most interesting aspect of other people – the point where we go inside them – is the face. It tells all."
"Even if I'm sitting looking at you, there is always the memory of you as well. And a memory is now."
"The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist."
"I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is."
"In real life, when you are looking at six people, there are a thousand perspectives."
"I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is."
"If you see the world as beautiful, thrilling, and mysterious as I think I do, then you feel quite alive."
David Hockney Quotes On Paintings
In the early 21st century, Hockney experimented with multi-paneled paintings that explored the portrayal of space after working with abstract landscapes in the ’90s. He also followed his lifelong interest in cutting-edge technology.
"I draw flowers every day and send them to my friends so they get fresh blooms every morning."
"Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make."
"When you are older, you realize that everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing."
"All painting, no matter what you are painting, is abstract in that it's got to be organized."
"I had to keep looking and drawing, and looking. Now, because of all that time I spent drawing these grasses, I know what I'm looking for."
"I've included those multiple angles of vision in paintings of friends in my studio."
"When you are drawing, you are always one or two marks ahead."
"I had always planned to make a large painting of the early spring, when the first leaves are at the bottom of the trees, and they seem to float in space in a wonderful way."
"With watercolor, you can't cover up the marks. There's the story of the construction of the picture, and then the picture might tell another story as well."
"It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work."
