David Hockney Portraits

David Hockney is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. He has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and portraits of family, lovers, friends and well-known subjects represent an intimate visual diary of the artist's life. This authoritative new study examines Hockney's portraits in all media - painting, drawing, photocollage and prints - and is produced in close collaboration with the artist. Together, the authors reveal how Hockney's creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work: from his iconic double portraits of the late 1960s and early 1970s to his cubist-influenced investigations of the 1980s and from his recent camera lucida drawings to his return to painting from life in oils. Featuring over 250 works from the past fifty years, David Hockney Portraits illustrates not only the range and innovation of his creative practice but also the circular nature of his subjects and artistic pre-occupations.
David Hockney Portraits includes essays by Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, Barbara Stern Shapiro, Curator for Special Projects at the Museum of Fine Arts, Mark Glazebrook, Marco Livingstone and award-winning author Edmund White. The book will also include notes on sitters and an illustrated chronology. Published to accompany a major exhibition, David Hockney Portraits, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (26 February- 14 May 2006), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (11 June- 4 September 2006) and the National Portrait Gallery, London (12 October 2006-21 January 2007).