Month: October 2017

Ca’ Pesaro, the grand palace of the second half of the 17th century where the International Gallery of Modern Art of Venice is located, is hosting a beautiful exhibition which nears its end.

The exhibition of David Hockney, from June 24th to October 22nd, is the first Italian exhibition focused on the master of contemporary art, and it has brought for the first time in our country his most recent project: 82 portraits and a still life.

David Hockney was born on July 9, 1937 in Bradford, a British industrial town in West Yorkshire, and attended the Royal College of Art in London after graduating at the Bradford School of Art.

In 1960 he exhibited at the historic Young Contemporaries at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, an exhibition which marks the birth of the British pop art, and David became one of the major exponents.

In 1961 he travelled to the United States for the first time, destination New York, and then in 1964 he went to Los Angeles, a city that inspired him with his dazzling California light: he became an interpreter of that particular light, turning the atmosphere of the American life into famous works.

His work, from the beginning to the present, has the figurative element as the absolute protagonist, from portrait to landscape, through the use of traditional art and new media techniques.

David ranges among pastel designs, engravings, oil paintings, photographic collages,  designs on the iPad, portraying the life around him, and he works also on many scenographies both in England and in the United States.

His artworks lead him to become one of the most famous and important artists of the twentieth century and, for some decades, the best-known British artist.

I’d like to indicate a quote to his famous picture “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures)” in one of my favorite Netflix series: in the Bojack Horseman’s living room there is a funny “horse version”.

In the current exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro we can see the 82 portraits made between 2013 and 2016 featuring gallerists, curators, artists, well-known and familiar faces in Los Angeles, as well as family members and friends.

Each portrait is executed under the same conditions: the realization time is three days (or, as the artist says, “twenty hours of exposure”), with the subject sitting in a chair on a platform with a neutral two-tone background, to prove that, within the limits of these rigid standards of representation, the greatness of the master is measured by his ability to express an infinite range of human feelings.

Sources

http://www.veneziatoday.it/eventi/location/ca-pesaro/
http://www.veneziatoday.it/eventi/mostra-david-hockney-ca-pesaro.html
http://capesaro.visitmuve.it/it/mostre/mostre-in-corso/david-hockney/2017/03/18600/82-ritratti-e-1-natura-morta/
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hockney
http://www.ilpost.it/2017/07/09/david-hockney/