Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition): Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters

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British painter David Hockney, well known for his cool and lovely paintings of California pools, has taken on the new role of detective. For two years Hockney seriously investigated the painting techniques of the old masters, and like any admirable sleuth, compiled substantial evidence to support his revolutionary theory. Secret Knowledge is the fruit of this labor, an exhaustive treatise in pictures revealing clues that some of the world's most famous painters, Ingres, Velázquez, Caravaggio (just to mention a few) utilized optics and lenses in creating their masterpieces. Hockney's fascination with the subject is contagious, and the book feels almost like a game with each analysis a "How'd they do that?" instead of a whodunit. While some may find the technical revelation a disappointment in terms of the idea of genius, Hockney is quick to point out that the use of optics does not diminish the immensity of artistic achievement. He reminds the reader that a tool is just a tool, and it is still the artist's hand and creative vision that produce a work of art. (296 pages, 460 illustrations, 402 in color.) --J.P. Cohen

Book Description

David Hockney's controversial book, now revised in paperback with thirty-two new pages of evidence

Join one of the most influential artists of our time as he investigates the painting techniques of the Old Masters. Hockney's extensive research led him to conclude that artists such as Caravaggio, Velázquez, da Vinci, and other hyperrealists actually used optics and lenses to create their masterpieces.

In this passionate yet pithy book, Hockney takes readers on a journey of discovery as he builds a case that mirrors and lenses were used by the great masters to create their highly detailed and realistic paintings and drawings. Hundreds of the best-known and best-loved paintings are reproduced alongside his straightforward analysis. Hockney also includes his own photographs and drawings to illustrate techniques used to capture such accurate likenesses. Extracts from historical and modern documents and correspondence with experts from around the world further illuminate this thought-provoking book that will forever change how the world looks at art.

Secret Knowledge will open your eyes to how we perceive the world and how we choose to represent it.

Customer Reviews:

Not so Secret to Art Technicians.......2007-08-13

Nothing is revealed but much is speculative, add a dash of "evidence" and juggle well.....I must admit to being both a commercial artist and a so-called fine artist, sign painter, computer graphic artist, sculptor, teacher, ceramics artist, candlemaker, etc., who has embraced all the projectors, cameras, overhead projectors, slide projectors, computers, tv's and every imaginable device that I could manage on many occasions, to meet a deadline. I've been drawing for my entire life and am quite studied. But, I find Hockney's revealing text and SECRET ideas to be simply another "fashionable" and wearable piece of entertainment from the old salt. Sue me. Then sue Rembrandt. As for the nasty reviews, what's up with the this public's deluded needs that every so-called master MUST be a superb draftsman? SIMPLY SAVES SOME TIME AND ENERGY TO PROJECT A DRAWING OR SKETCH. Hockney's work is bright, bold and fashionable. Those artists to whom we entitle as "masters" were similarly inclined, all attempted to be supported by their productions!! Any artist knows that those fuzzy afterimages he sees in his sleep certainly won't sell, and even the abstractionists of every ilk, must strive for atmosphere, depth cues, etc. Art is about making an illusion, and to use a lens is no sin. Especially when for the most part, your painting must done by candle light or very limited daylight, most often in freezing cold ateliers, heated by a wood stove....Be quiet though, the public doesn't really want their opined bubble popped!

Hockney's Evidence is Thought-Provoking, Verifiable/Falsifiable.......2007-03-27

Critics and reviewers who have rated Hockney's Secret Knowledge low seem to me to overlooks some major points. Some of these I find more persuasive than the the issue of alleged perspective misjudgment which seem to attract the greatest heat.

1. H points out that a huge majority of portraits in the period show the model as left handed--some 80%. This is consistent with use of lenses and inconsistent with the frequency of left-handedness in the population. Now, here is a verifiable fact. Are H's numbers right--or are they not?

2. H is not claiming that everyone 1400-1650 was a poor draftsman. At least in what I've seen so far, he doesn't claim e.g. that Rembrandt used optics. Part of his evidence is however that some artists who were great painters were not great draftsmen--their painting exceeds in accuracy their draftsmanship. Now this appears to me again something that is verifiable by a third party. (The question of H's own draftsmanship abilities is totally irrlevant. I don't like his art much myself).

3. In a highly competitive art market, where realism counted, what is the likelihood that artists would >not < use devices that helped them both with accuracy and speed? Even if the great Ren artists could paint and draw realistically without optics (and their education certainly was thorough), throughput and competitive concerns surely would have pushed them in that direction.

4. To my knowledge, no one has responded to H's claim that the change in light to very strong with dark shadows from about 1400 (light is flat) to 1500 is very consistent with use of optics. Yes, that is not the only possible explanation. But from a philosophy of science perspective, this phenomenon and the phenomenon of increased accuracy need to be explained. H at least offers an explanation. The burden of an alternative explanation is on the critics. H's hypothesis could be falsified by showing that in fact strong lighting was used before this period and flat lighting afterwards.

5. Another phenomenon for which H has an explanation but for which I haven't seen alternatives is the fact that in many realistic paintings, depth of field is evident. An example is the famous Vermeer milk pitcher painting. H has an explanation of why the foreground breadbasket is out of focus, while the background basket is (oddly) in focus. If a critic doesn't like H's explanation, he/she should provide an alternative.

6. H shows that in some cases extremely precise scaling is evident--scaling that would be very difficult to do by hand. Prof Falco, the optics and superconducting physicist who collaborated with H., has done the math and claimed that obtaining such accuracy by hand is very difficult since the error is (as I remember) under 2%). Doing anything by hand with under 2% error is quite a feat--including reconciling bank statements :)-- never mind drawing. Here is another phenomenon in which either the factual statements by H and Falco can be easily verified/falsified or need an alternative explanation should be provided.

On an ad hominem note, I think it is worth pointing out that art historians have a built-in motive for rejecting H's hypothesis: They didn't find it! I took an amateur to notice the discrepancies. Finally, personal experience suggests that some people have a lot more difficult time with accuracy/obtaining a likeness than others. For H to be correct, he does not need to support the claim that everyone who was accurate used optics, only that some did and these raised the bar for the art community as a whole.

Thanks for reading.

Another great book from Hockney's first rate mind.......2007-01-12

I have spent years painting and teaching and drawing the figure. Its amazing how much a person still can learn after practicing it for so long. This is one of the joys of drawing. Every investigated mark is a learning experience. That is what I also love about Hockney. This man might not be the greatest shining star artist of our time, but it would be easy to defend him as the greatest thinker in the arts since Da Vinci.

'Secret Knowledge' is just a small chunk of Hockney's oeuvre. He has been writing books primarily through the interview form for decades. Each book has looked at aspects of art in different lights. This book only happens to be the most concise and stylized of his many efforts.

Basically, if your here reading this, I bet you have some idea what this book is about already. You know that Hockney is putting forth a thesis on how drawings were so precisely crafted by the masters two hundred years ago, while today as one of our societies foremost draftsmen, Hockney cant even come close to matching those abilities. Hockney goes into detail on how he can see characteristic pencil marks created by Warhol or other artists using over-head projectors and Ingres' drawings. This is pretty obvious if you have done both. Hockney then goes into precise detail on the drawbacks of using the camera lucidea and obscuras and how they were used.

I really find some qualms with the reviewer who says that Hockney's arguments are on par with a junior high school students and that they are not scientific. Quite the contrary. Hockney's arguments are precise and unfold in a step by step process. You can't really give scientific proof over how a drawing was created any other way than Hockney has done so. The more time you spend drawing the figure, the more you will realize what Hockney is saying, is right on.

I think that this book will go down as one of the benchmark art books of our era. Its well worth pondering over and I think that even though it does not have quite as much relevance in our post-modern era, it will be around for as long as people still want to understand art.

An Important And Original Work.......2007-01-10

An excellent read for those interested in the way artworks were produced. The book's inferences humanize Art History and will change the way you look at the works of past masters. Hockney's research is well documented, well presented and profound.

'A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth' John Singer Sargent.......2006-12-14

Reaction to David Hockney's original book SECRET KNOWLEDGE published in 2001 stirred a lot of controversy from artists, art historians, art collectors, and students: the responses ranged from resounding Bravos! to a clangorous 'Humbugs!' Now Hockney has produced a second expanded volume, partially in response to that outbreak of slander and partially to fill the voids left by his first set of observations. This newly expanded version retains the luxury of copious images of paintings from the early 15th century to the present and adds to that a fascinating series of historical quotations from across the centuries to support his theory. In other words, the book is still controversial - but now it is backed by researched documents from ancient and contemporary scholars.

His theory? Simply that artists from those following Giotto to the present used optics as a tool to create images. Hockney does not disparage this 'manipulation' as a foil to famous artists' integrity or talent: quite the opposite - he lauds the artists who had the intelligence to make use of yet another tool (like paint brushes, charcoal, paper, easels, etc) to hone their skills. Hockney gently and with respect explores the use of the camera obscura and camera lucida along with the use of concave and convex mirrors and lenses, offering the reader not only his ideas on the subject but also splendid examples of how the discovery of optics changed the quality of painting over a mere tow or three years of usage time with such luminaries as Velasquez and Caravaggio!

Whether or not the reader elects to accept Hockney's premise of the importance of optics in the development of art history will not prevent enjoying the fascinating excursion this well designed and produced book offers. Hockney intermingles his own portraits meticulously created with the use of the camera lucida to demonstrate how this technique was in no way a sign of laziness or 'copying' of a projected image on the part of the artists he discusses. Quite the contrary. By utilizing these techniques and sharing the inherent difficulties the use of optics creates in the technical aspects of painting and drawing he is able to speak with authority about his thesis.

Hockney's joy (which continues to this day) is exploring the 'How did they do that?' response to painting, not unlike the way most of us approach a canvas and as 'What does it mean?'. It is this kind of intellectual searching that makes this book such a treasure - that, and the fact that here is yet another superb art history book that the reader will actually READ instead of just perusing the pictures. Highly recommended on many levels. Grady Harp, December 06

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Maniac
A Very Personal and Tender Survey of the Works of David Hockney

David Hockney Portraits
Sarah Howgate , and Barbara Stern Shapiro
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 030011754X

Book Description

David Hockney (b. 1937) is one of the most significant artists exploring and pushing the boundaries of figurative art today. Hockney has been engaged with portraiture since his teenage years, when he painted Portrait of My Father (1955), and his self-portraits and depictions of family, lovers, and friends represent an intimate visual diary of the artist’s life.
This beautifully illustrated book examines Hockney’s portraits in all media—painting, drawing, photography, and prints—and has been produced in close collaboration with the artist. Featured subjects include members of Hockney’s family and private circle, as well as portraits of such artists and cultural figures as Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente, R. B. Kitaj, Helmet Newton, Lawrence Weschler, and W. H. Auden. The authors reveal how Hockney’s creative development and concerns about representation can be traced through his portrait work: from his battle with naturalism to his experimentation with and later rejection of photography, and from his recent camera lucida drawings to his return to painting from life.
Featuring more than 250 works from the past fifty years, David Hockney Portraits illustrates not only the fascinating range of Hockney’s creative practice but also the unique and cyclical nature of his artistic concerns.

Customer Reviews:

Maniac.......2007-05-12

Generally the portrait images were too small to really study his painting style. That is my only complaint. Interesting stories in the section describing all his sitters, famous or not. What a productive maniac he has been. 41 portraits of his dogs!!!

A Very Personal and Tender Survey of the Works of David Hockney.......2006-04-24

David Hockney is an artist whose works are familiar to everyone, whether from exposure to his many museum shows, his paintings and drawings included in every major survey of contemporary art, to his magical sets for operas such as The Magic Flute, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, The Rake's Progress, Tristan und Isolde, etc.

This current book DAVID HOCKNEY PORTRAITS is, for this reader, the most sensitive presentation of Hockney not only as an artist but also as a tender, feeling, caring human being. The book accompanies an exhibition soon to travel and includes over 250 examples of Hockney's view of his family, himself, his friends - famous and not so famous-, lovers, and pets. The result is a survey of Hockney's people-oriented works over the past fifty years.

Included are early pen and ink drawings from the 1950s, gentle and simple line portraits of his mother and father and himself, and progresses to the development of his large-scale paintings of life size portraits of family, lovers, and self-portraits. Many of the people depicted in these works are no longer alive and there is a sense of memory in some of the works that barely hides Hockney's sadness at their parting.

The book also opens the door to Hockney's experimentation with photography as an art medium, with several of his multiple view Polaroid collages of a single 'sitting' telling more stories than a movie. And after Hockney's excursion into that medium the portraits turn to painting his subjects from life.

Most of the works in this book have been published in other volumes or have become familiar to the public by other means, but it is the curatorial hand that makes his survey so fine and so immediate, a success not easily accomplished with an artist as private as Hockney: the collection is under the encouraging guidance of the artist. This is an excellent overview of a very special artist whose works continue to capture the imagination of viewers and fellow artists alike. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, April 06

Hockney's Pictures: The Definitive Retrospective

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Hockney's art through Hockney's eyes
David Hockney as Curator

Hockney's Pictures: The Definitive Retrospective
Gregory Evans
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0821228730

Customer Reviews:

Hockney's art through Hockney's eyes.......2007-08-27

This book is a very complete compendium of David Hockney's output up to 2004. Its main asset is the quality of the illustrations, some of which are accompanied by a short commentary by the artist. Divided into four chapters ( chapter 1, entitled "problems of depiction", deals with the artist's various series on theater stages, water, movement, how to adapt to a moving viewpoint, the problem of styles, etc; chapter 2 entitled "life stilled", dwells on home, life, still life, love; chapter 3 tackles portraits; chapter 4 studies space and light) it has very little text and leaves it to the reader, or rather, to the spectator to interpret all the works (which, in my opinion, is not a bad idea for an art book).

Probably the best available on this major artist.

David Hockney as Curator.......2006-07-22

"The Definitive Retrospective" sounds a bit unctuous and presumptuous for a book of selected paintings from an artist's enormous output, but when the artist himself makes the title, we pay attention. This is a splendid picture book with minimal writing and conversation put together by Hockney and Gregory Evans, a book that surveys almost every aspect of this prodigious artist's career. To a point. The book was published in 2004 and Hockney is still painting daily!

As those who are having the complete pleasure of attending the current touring exhibition 'DAVIS HOCKNEY PORTRAITS' currently in Los Angeles, the absence of his 2005 massive output of studio visitor portraits and some of his most current large portraits are missing from this 'definitive retrospective'. But more is the joy, knowing that Hockney continues to invent and pursue ideas and venues that challenge him and result in some of the most exciting work he has made.

But for the reader of this excellent volume there is indeed much to love. Hockney sprinkles the margins of the book with little bits of observation, philosophy and humor. The strong point of the book is the plethora of images very well reproduced on excellent paper. It would be testy to say this is the finest of the many Hockney books available, but at least this one is the painter's stance on the definitive aspect of his career in painting. Welcome to the joy of David Hockney (and buy the Portraits catalogue to embellish this volume!). Highly recommended. Grady Harp, July 06

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Sunshine & Noir
Mike Davis , Mike Kelley , and David Hockney
Manufacturer: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8790029194
Release Date: 1998-03-02

Book Description

Artistic production in L.A., while certainly influenced by the international currents which have defined New York, has always retained a distinct affinity. Sunshine & Noir takes an indepth look at the art and the artists that define art in L.A.

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Cameraworks
David Hockney
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0394537335
Release Date: 1984-09-12

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Pop-up is Tops
I have lazy eye
A Novelty Worth Having
The Real California - in Three Dimensions

The California Pop-Up Book

Manufacturer: Universe Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0789305003
Release Date: 2001-11-17

Book Description

The California Pop-Up Book is a creative exploration of the California experience through 3-D op-ups, pull-outs, booklets, and narratives. Produced jointly by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Universe Publishing on the occasion of the LACMA exhibition Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000, this extraordinary book highlights the dynamic relationship between the arts and the way the Golden State has been portrayed and conceived in the popular imagination. Whether promoted as the Edenic paradise early in the twentieth century or viewed as a mulitcultural metropolis of the future in our own time, California has exerted a profound fascination the world over for more than a century. Arranged chronologically form the Gold Rush to the Walt Disney Concert Hall (scheduled to open in 2003), this commemorative book will be a keepsake for audiences worldwide.

Filled with an array of surprises, the book features many of California's great treasures fashioned into pop-ups pop-ups, including:

-Balboa Park, San Diego
-Pierre Koenig's Case Study House #22, Los Angeles
-Chicano Park, San Diego
-Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood
-Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
-Hearst Castle, San Simeon
-The Mission Inn, Riverside
-Sea Ranch, Sonoma County
-Frank O. Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
-Watts Towers, Los Angeles

Other places visited in The California Pop-Up Book:

-Central Avenue, Los Angeles
-Disneyland Park's Tomorrowland, Anaheim
-The Gamble House, Pasadena

Paper engineers have created unique pop-ups and pullouts of original works by California artists:

-David Hockney's Mulholland Drive
-Edward Ruscha's Standard Station
-Robbert Flick's Wilshire Boulevard
-Gilbert "Magu" Lujan's Our Family Car

Customer Reviews:

Pop-up is Tops.......2007-01-11

Now I know why I love California so much - this pop-up book tells it all! Well worth the money.

I have lazy eye.......2005-10-14

Even with lack of proper stereoscopic vision, due to serious lazy eye, the figures appear vivid and dimensional. The book includes a set of postcards that may be sent to taunt the less fortunate who haven't witnessed the wonders herein.

A Novelty Worth Having.......2004-07-01

As a California historian and author of the book: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MISCELLANY, I found this California pop-up to be a charmingly fun novelty book to share when company comes over.

The Real California - in Three Dimensions.......2001-12-03

The book looks like it might just be a decorative coffee table item, but the content belies that impression. The pop-ups are fun and attractive, but the real story is in the choice of objects and the writing. The selections speak to the myth of California that was consciously created by early explorers, developers, and movie moguls but became its own reality as people migrated to the state ready to play the roles the myth-makers created for them. In exposing the history through objects and some remarkable writing by such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn See, Graham Nash, Alice Waters, Terry Gilliam, and Richard Rodriguez, the pre-mythic history and the development of a true California culture emerges...one in which the tinsel is a little tarnished around the edges, but glows as brightly as ever with its own special light.

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A beautifully rendered work
For the dachsdhund lover!
don't buy this book unless you really love dachs
David Hockney's Dog Days by David Hockney
Super doxie poses!

David Hockney's Dog Days
David Hockney
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500286272

Amazon.com

David Hockney's Dog Days is the slightest of books, but that may be just fine for dachshund lovers, who will be its best audience. Hockney's drawings and paintings of his two dogs are full of tender love. They are "not very good models," he says. "One knock on the door is enough to make them leap up." So he paints them snoozing, mostly horizontal (as dachshunds usually are), and mostly on yellow and blue backgrounds, which can be monotonous. These are not the dachshunds of Pierre Bonnard, who made strange black holes in otherwise glorious canvasses. No matter: Hockney offers "no apologies." Speaking as a dog lover, he explains, "These two little creatures are my friends."

Book Description

"A charming collection…an essential book for the dachshund or Hockney lover."—The Mail on Sunday

"From September 1993, I painted and drew my dogs. This took a certain amount of planning, since dogs are generally not interested in Art (I say generally only because I have now come across a singing dog). Food and love dominate their lives.

"I make no apologies for the apparent subject matter. These two dear little creatures are my friends. They are intelligent, loving, comical, and often bored. They watch me work; I notice the warm shapes they make together, their sadness and their delights. And, being Hollywood dogs, they somehow seem to know that a picture is being made."—David Hockney

David Hockney introduces his two dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, in this delightful collection. The result of both sharp observation and affection, these paintings and drawings are lyrical studies in form and design. A text by the artist gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how to work with models that don't necessarily want to sit still. 84 color illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

A beautifully rendered work.......2006-12-23

Hockney's work is simply spectacular here. It's true that "true dachshund lovers" will probably appreciate this work to an extra degree. Hockney renders the dogs in many playful and sleepy poses that are recognizable to dog owners. Some artists have been unsuccessful in transferring the spirit of a dachshund to the page or canvas, but Hockney manages to capture the joy of the small dog and its sad, melancholy face.

For the dachsdhund lover!.......2003-10-10

How lovely! An art book about dachshunds! Of course, they are mainly sleeping, dachshunds are too energetic to be captured with a camera, let alone a paintbrush. But the sketches add to the paintings and one can easily recognize the true nature of these dogs: philosophic, intelligent and full of natural authority. Although my favourite picture was a photograph of Hockney and his dogs and the pillow (in most paintings) with Hockney's paintings all around them. The book tells more about us dachshund lovers than the dogs, we are a strange bunch with an odd sense of humour and a deep passion for these dogs. Well, only a person with an odd sense of humour and a lot of patience would love - and manage to live with - a dachshund...

A perfect gift for dachshund lovers, people interested in dogs or art - or children, who think art is dull and never funny. The paintings are full of love. Thank you, David Hockney : )

don't buy this book unless you really love dachs.......2003-04-13

David Hockney is a great artist and it's touching that he made a whole book about the little dogs that are his friends. But since the whole book is really just two dogs in different poses, don't purchase it unless you're a true dachshund lover. I bought this book as a gift for my relatives who own dachs, and they oohed and ahhed over it.

David Hockney's Dog Days by David Hockney.......2002-04-28

I love this book!! Having had 2 red smooth dachshunds, these pictures looked like they could have been from my home. All dachshund lovers will truly enjoy looking at this.

Super doxie poses!.......2002-01-02

I thought it was awesome! A lot of the drawings looked just like my tree red smooths. I was really impressed with how he sees his dachshunds and all of our dachshunds in art. If your not a person who lives and breathes doxies, you may not like it.

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David Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective

Manufacturer: Thames and Hudson Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0500092559

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Best of Hockney's Books
great purchase
A Hockney Treasure House!
A Real Beauty !
Now I see it ----- differently!

That's the Way I See It
David Hockney
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500280851

Book Description

"There is always, everywhere, an enormous amount of suffering, but I believe that my duty as an artist is to overcome and alleviate the sterility of despair...I do believe that painting can change the world." —David Hockney

In this classic book, one of the most critically acclaimed and universally popular artists of modern times describes his life and work from the mid-1970s to the 1990s. David Hockney has forged a new way of seeing through an intense exploration of a variety of forms. Working in almost every medium—painting, drawing, stage design, photography, and printmaking—he has stretched the boundaries of all of them.

Hockney has undertaken a singular and ambitious experiment with ways of seeing and ways of representing sight: ranging from his paintings, with their challenges to perspective and brilliant colors, to his vivid multidimensional photo-collages and his fax art, computer printings, and colored laser prints. Constantly questioning, seeking, taking nothing for granted, Hockney has in his own way transformed our understanding of how we perceive the world and how art can alter our vision.

Interweaving detailed accounts of personal experience and artistic endeavor, Hockney has produced here one of the most revealing autobiographies ever of the modern artist. That's the Way I See It is a tour de force—an unparalleled insight into one of the most original creative personalities of our age. 365 illustrations, 315 in color.

Customer Reviews:

Best of Hockney's Books.......2007-08-10

One of the best David Hockney books.
A must have if you are interested in his photo montage method aka joiner method.

great purchase.......2007-07-04

i had read it before and i just had to have it, its an amazing book even if you dont know david hockneys work, the book will make you fall in love with him and his art

A Hockney Treasure House!.......2006-07-19

Fortunately for us, Chronicle Books continues to grace the art bookstores with superb and affordable monographs on art that make a difference. In this completely enchanting, richly illustrated book David Hockney conducts a conversation with us, the reader, sharing his unique and genteel ideas on how he sees and hence composes the paintings and drawings and photographic montages and sets of operas that have so enriched the art world since he first began his long career.

Hockney's writing style is quietly warm, honest, clever, whimsical and very informed. In this truly magnificent volume he is sharing not only his forays into experimental art (his influences from Picasso, Bacon, and the many MANY illustrious friends who fill his life), he also allows us to understand why he experiments with photography (his explosive yet intimate collages of Polaroid rooms of conversing friends are unique to Hockney), his manner of viewing huge spaces and then parceling them onto paper or canvas in a manner that allows us to see vistas not available to the isolated glance, his still lifes, his sketches and portraits of studio visitors - the volume of work is staggering.

Another fine discussion revolves around is spectacular sets for opera (Tristan und Isolde, Turandot, The Magic Flute, A Rake's Progress, Die Frau Ohne Schatten) - these coming from an artist who is almost completely without hearing making music visual!

For all lovers of Hockney's work as well as for those who want to understand why he so very popular, this is one of the best introductions available about the man and his work! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, July 06

A Real Beauty !.......2002-11-16

I have been a fan of David Hockney's for many many years and was delighted to find this book. He writes in an understated, easy way about his art and about modern art in general.

Two of the sections were particularly interesting: "Art versus the Art World" and "The Power of Art".

In the book, Hockney explained how places and his personal experiences have influenced his art over the years. He talks about how he is incorporating photography into his work and feels that it is an artist's responsibility to be open to new forms of expression. He says he is an "artist who is always working". I think he is always experimenting too, with different methods of expressing his artistic vision.

He said he asssumes that if he is interested in painting something, others will be interested as well. I loved this viewpoint....in other words, he creates for himself.

This was a lovely book---especially all of the GORGEOUS color reproductions which traced the Hockney's evolution and his journeys.

Now I see it ----- differently!.......2000-10-28

This is an interesting book because it explains the discovery of ways of seeing, and in the process of explaining alters the way the reader sees art.

Book Description

One of the most widely acclaimed of all living artists, David Hockney has, in some ways, been the victim of his own popularity. Frequently interpreted as the lightweight expression of a colorful personality, his work is characterized by an underlying seriousness of purpose. This emerges with particular clarity from the fresh appraisal of the artist's oeuvre offered in this book, now available in paperback for the first time.

Each of the volume's six chapters, broadly chronological in sequence, is introduced by an essay that examines in depth certain aspects of Hockney's artistic practice. The complexity of his seemingly straightforward imagery is further elucidated in the commentaries accompanying each of the sixty-three carefully selected color plates. These encompass the period from 1960-1993, from work produced during the artist's student days at the Royal College of Art in London to his most recent paintings, enriched through his experiences of designing for the stage and by his experiments with photo-collage and fax art. Several lesser known and rarely reproduced paintings are included in this volume in full color together with numerous black-and-white illustrations of related works. Together these provide important reference material. An illustrated chronology and a selected bibliography conclude this lucid, authoritative account of Hockney's development.

With access to the artist's personal archives, the authors dispel certain myths about Hockney's work and open up new lines of enquiry. Intended for the general reader, this book will also be of interest to all students of modern painting and to admirers of one of its most appealing exponents.

Customer Reviews:

A treasure of Hockney illustrations & information.......2003-01-16

If you want a better understanding of David Hockney buy this book. It is a wonderful display of illustrations and information of a great British artist.

"David Hockney: Paintings" is well written and organized to foster a greater understanding of how Hockney evolves over the course of his career. Moreover, you will be impressed by the outstanding quality of the the black & white and color illustrations.

Authors Paul Melia and Ulrich Luckhardt provide the reader an excellent insight to the artistic thoughts of David Hockney. It also studies and explains the tremendous global popularity of the artist. This is a great book to have in the house.

A Fan's Book.......2002-12-20

Being a tremendous fan of Hockney's work, I was delighted to find this beautiful and informative book.

I liked the chronological organization as the book traced the artist's development over the years. I always find this such an interesting perspective, seeing how an artist's vision changes and evolves. And I also liked the way that the relationship between Hockney's life and his art is explored.

The illustrations were grand too!

A worthwhile book and a good study of Hockney, his life, and his works.

What a bargain price for such a wonderful book.......2001-11-18

I was more than pleasantly surprised by the extremely high quality of the reproductions. The book is split up in six chapters covering the main artistic phases in Hockney`s live and giving a lot of information about his paintings.
I find it extremely interesting not just to see Hockney`s work but also to read the details on the creative process leading up to the finished painting. A wonderful book!

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