THE WASHINGTON TIMES
JUNE 10, 2012
“David Hockney: A Bigger Picture.” With essays by Marco Livingstone, Margaret Drabble and others. New York: Abrams. $95.00 304pp. Illustrated.
Christopher Simon Sykes, “David Hockney: A Rake’s Progress. The Biography 1937-75.” New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. $35.00 363pp. Illustrated.
By Martin Rubin
In the section on Christopher Simon Sykes’ biography, the first of two planned volumes, Martin refers to an “amazing series of landscapes” Hockney has painted since his return home to Britain:
What a contrast they are to those bright canvases of the swimming pools and palm trees of Los Angeles, with their garish colors and bold presentation, which seemed to draw inspiration from the shock to his system of encountering such a climate and a light so strikingly different from the English gloom. As Christopher Simon Sykes makes clear in his thorough, graceful account of Hockney’s first four decades, the artist found a great deal in America, but more than anything else what he fell in love with was Southern California . . . .
Read Martin’s full review here or visit washingtontimes.com.