How cinema shaped David Hockney’s art
Born in Bradford just a few years before the beginning of World War II, David Hockney‘s career as a multi-disciplinary artist has spanned decades, continuing into the present day. After studying at various institutions, such as the Bradford College of Art and London’s Royal College of Art, Hockney emerged in the 1960s, associated with the burgeoning British pop art movement.
However, Hockney transcended the idea of fitting into one movement, instead crafting an idiosyncratic style that has cemented him as one of the most vital artists of the 20th century. Much of Hockney’s work is concerned with sexuality, relationships, family, and nature, with the artist frequently returning to motifs like swimming pools, as exemplified in his most famous artwork, A Bigger Splash.
This painting emerged from Hockney’s visit to California in the early 1960s, which led him to relocate there for an extended period. Discussing his intention behind the iconic swimming pool artwork, Hockney said, “When you photograph a splash, you’re freezing a moment, and it becomes something else. I realise that a splash could never be seen this way in real life, it happens too quickly. And I was amused by this, so I painted it in a very, very slow way.”
Hockney’s constantly-evolving body of work has incorporated mediums like Polaroid collages, iPad drawings and set design as he has come to find inspiration from new places, technology and experiences. Yet, one influence set Hockney on his path towards creativity, initially sparking his interest in making pictures – cinema.
The artist once asserted that he “was brought up in Bradford and Hollywood”. Through cinema, Hockney was introduced to another world where anything was possible. He wanted to visit Hollywood to be free of labels and experience a completely new version of life. Moreover, movies demonstrated the potential of light and composition, inspiring how Hockney would soon approach his canvas.
Many of Hockney’s work has taken inspiration from the silver screen, which opened the artist’s eyes to endless possibilities. Randall Wright, who directed the documentary, Hockney, notes the importance of cinema in the artist’s world. Referring to the painting Beverly Hills Housewife, Wright told BFI: “That painting looks amazing on screen, incredibly beautiful, and it’s CinemaScope ratio, Hollywood in its dimensions as well as its subject matter.”
“He’s very influenced by cinema, he’s very influenced by the power of those big images,” he added. “When he was a boy, the biggest, best images were on the silver screen, that was the window on the world. It’s a period of his painting that Scorsese talks about being influenced by, and I think it’s the high eyeline, slightly above the heads of the figures, so you have this crystalline, floating, dreamlike reality to the picture, which is very filmic”.
Wright also stated that, while many artists were turned off by mediums such as cinema, Hockney revelled in it. Dubbing Los Angeles “the Florence of the twentieth century, the place where the biggest and best images were being made,” Wright explained, “Most other artists had decided that they weren’t going to compete with photography or with films, but David took it all on.”
Martin Scorsese, one of the most celebrated filmmakers of all time, cites Hockney as a significant influence over his work. Not only does he believe that the Hockney documentary A Bigger Splash is “a masterpiece” and “one of the most important films ever made about the creative process,” but he also claims that it inspired his movie Taxi Driver.
He told the Directors Guild of America Quartley: “I was also thinking about Jack Hazan’s movie A Bigger Splash about David Hockney. Again, there was just something about the way the images were framed, something very objective, a lot of head-on shots, which influenced the way I shot Travis’ cab pulling up to the grocery store before his first murder — it’s meant to look like a newspaper photo, to have the objectivity of a Weegee photo.”
Hockney has continued to be fascinated by cinema as the decades have passed. In 2010, he began to consider an alternative form of movie-watching, creating “multiscreen films”, playing with the idea of perspective and subjectivity, giving agency to the viewer rather than the filmmaker. Thus, Hockney’s innovative approach to the creative process, constantly expanding his craft through new mediums and ideas, has rightly asserted him as one of England’s most important artists.
