Hockney (2014)

Hockney (2014). Hockney: Directed by Randall Wright. With David Hockney, Arthur Lambert, Colin Self, Don Bachardy. The film looks back at Hockney's formative years in the British pop art scene and his experiences as a gay man.

“I donu0026#39;t know too much about David Hockney but have watched one or two recent Arts programmes on him and was curious to watch this documentary on his life and times. I came away from it very appreciative of his art if not learning too much about the innermost personality of a man who appears to have made a big splash with his life early on in the Pop Art-infused swinging 60u0026#39;s but to have gradually withdrawn within himself into his work as he has got older.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe narrative does follow a back-to-front framework as the viewer is guided through his life although I donu0026#39;t recall very often specific dates being spelt out for assimilation. The interviews with friends and associates are insightful and positive if less than critical, as I sense something cantankerous, provocative and difficult about him which seemed to get glossed over.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe key relationships in his life appear to be with the young lover he lived with for years, although again weu0026#39;re not told why they split up, the older American critic who helped get him established in the States and anchored him throughout his life and lastly his relationship with his family, particularly his father and most especially his long-lived mother.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe different phases of his artistic progress were well documented with special emphasis on his best known paintings like the portrait of Ossie Clark and his wife and of course u0026quot;A Bigger Splashu0026quot;. I really enjoyed almost all of his work on display, right up to date with his work in different media, including photography and even works made up on an iPhone or iPad.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePresent day Hockney is interviewed intermittently throughout the piece, and a device is made of framing some of his often cryptic sayings as almost chapter headings which put me in mind of his later practice of putting together compartments of pictures to make a bigger whole, even though I tired a bit of this sometimes pretentious prop.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think I like the older, sager Hockney more than his flashier, often shocking younger self. I admired the way Hockney didnu0026#39;t suppress his homosexuality in the early 60u0026#39;s even when it was illegal in the UK up until 1967, but do wonder how heu0026#39;d have gotten on if his artistic fame and fortune hadnu0026#39;t taken him to Los Angeles in the mid 60u0026#39;s, where he was freed from convention.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNowadays he seems like a slightly solitary but still content old man, but hopefully with enough inspiration to go on into the future. No doubt heu0026#39;ll still be painting till he drops rather like his artistic hero Picasso.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m no art buff but I know what I like and while I was less keen on his earlier breakthrough works where he seemed to be pushing some sort of homosexual agenda, I enjoyed very much the work he created as he matured, rather in the same way, as I said earlier, I preferred the older to the younger man.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the whole then I enjoyed this film of an interesting, complex and very talented man but just wondered as the credits rolled if he might have made a slightly more imaginative and revealing job of it himself, as Iu0026#39;m sure he could have done.”