Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

Posted on by Live & Learn

He thinks the prices paid for his works sometimes border on madness. “I want to ignore it, mostly,” he says. “I’ve had sufficient money to do what I liked every day for the last 60 years. Even when I didn’t have much money, I’ve always managed. All I’m interested in is working, really. I’m going to go on working. Artists don’t retire.”

~ Lesley M.M. Blume, The World According to David Hockney (wsj.com, Sept 9, 2019)

Other notables from this essay:

  • “I have the vanity of an artist. I want my work to be seen. But I don’t have to be seen.” —David Hockney

  • “[The drawings] seem to exist fully formed. It’s like he bleeds them onto the page.” —Arne Glimcher

  • The drive up to David Hockney’s Los Angeles home in the Hollywood Hills is a narrow, winding route, full of hairpin turns. At the top of a hill, his compound is fortressed away behind an expanse of fence, hidden within a barely tamed jungle of palm trees and bird of paradise plants. Nearly every surface—the walls, the walkways connecting the buildings, the handrails and the roofs—has been painted brilliant colors: bubblegum pink, cerulean, canary yellow, sea green. ~ Lesley M.M. Blume

Painting above by David Hockney: The Road to York through Sledmere, 1997 – oil on canvas 48×60 in.

 

14 thoughts on “Monday Morning Wake-Up Call”

  1. he is right about the money, how much can you use, but for him to give up the act of painting would be like giving up a hand. his home seems like an incredibly interesting detail here.

  4. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    “I have the vanity of an artist. I want my work to be seen. But I don’t have to be seen.” – David Hockney. Lesley M.M. Blume, The World According to David Hockney (wsj.com, Sept 9, 2019)

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