A New Portrait of David Hockney

Book Review

A great new book by Lawrence Weschler, True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, terrific. A great overview on Hockney’s theory about the likely employment of the camera lucida by artists since the Renaissance. There are so many wonderful insights on painting and perception from this warm and adventurous painter. I love his embrace of cubism- not just about cubes. I might add “roundism” the point is volume- if I may quote Virginia Woolf here-“ Life is round “. Cubism was trying to unlock the concept of space to reinstall it back into painting. Enough of Flatland- people don’t live and breathe in two dimensions. I don’t love everything that Hockney has painted -but a lot of it I do. I love his courage and his relentless pursuit of an understanding of perception and painting- seeing.

I love his devotion to the history of painting not just Western-but from many different cultures throughout the world. There is a great deal on his painted stage sets for the Opera -a venue for which he enjoyed creating over the years even as his hearing declined; Hockney is now totally deaf. It is interesting to note that Hockney’s frustration over Weschler’s previous book on Robert Irwin-the Minimalist- was actually the catalyst for these conversations. Check it out.

Any recommendations for inspiring books on artists?

some shards of light in January...

The Art of Renewal
I would like to say a few words of appreciation for a recent gift to the nation by a carefully assembled collection of artists performing at the capital for the inauguration of President Obama.
There is a necessity for art in ritual.
A dear departed friend and colleague of mine, the painter Fran Gillespie, often said,
"Art heals what wars have torn apart".
To not just survive, but to thrive, a society needs its artists.
Our senses are awakened and massaged by the experience of art. This was made evident to me as I watched the ritual pageant of the inauguration, and the few days of celebration that preceded the ceremony, on January 20, 2009.
The whole event was framed by artistic expressions like that of the poet Elizabeth Alexander's carefully and elegantly crafted poem that beautifully augmented the president's speech. In the poem I heard a creative artist speaking to the creativity inherent in every person's daily occupation, recognizing that art is the province of every human being, that creators are renewing America every day by making a life and in turn making a country through their labors.
I think most people would agree that the country has been entrenched in a dark time with little hope in sight, so the musical quartet performing John Williams "Air to Simple Gifts" seemed to weave joy from sorrow as the somber beginning notes unfolded to become hopeful and celebratory like winter turning into spring. Transformative.
I can't forget Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul's deeply felt rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee". The singer clearly owns her space and from that space she awakened the heart and spirit of a bruised nation.

Art of Renewal

Welcome artists of 2009!
Orange bags are just "au point" with me. Growing up with plastics and synthetics presets an expectation-fires up an ancient memory in the rods and cones of my eyes.
Driving by a demolition or a construction site or a switchyard- the musical notes of cerulean blue plastic tubes, a cobalt blue tarp,orange cones or those safety yellow taped boundaries enliven the whole landscape like trumpets in a jazz ensemble.
Nature has more adventurous color schemes, but they are less obvious in New England-in our malled over suburbs. We are often restrained in our palettes-puritanical.
The folk traditions from Bulgaria to Guatamala festively celebrate life and our ability to perceive
a wide range of hues. The clever crafting of spectral notes in weavings, and throughout the cultures, create vibrations that ride the waves of light directly through our eyes and into our hearts-more healing than money can buy.
In January, in New England, I am like the gleaner in a Millet painting scavenging for shards of light.