David Hockney: A Retrospective - Hardcover

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British-born Hockney has had an international impact, and this book is a rich evocation of his 30-year career. Besides fellow artist R.B. Kitaj's overview, the book contains essays by Henry Geldzahler, Christopher Knight, Gert Schiff, Anne Hoy, Kenneth Silver, and Lawrence Weschler. This varied perspective is insightful, even startlingly intimateand in an unusual tribute to Hockney's stature as a painter, printmaker, and designer of contemporary angst, he is given the last 24 pages to make an artistic statement about the medium of creative work via commercial reproduction. This successful retrospective is recommended for all specialized art collections, particularly because of the evaluative essays, and is a fine acquisition for general libraries as well. Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The major theme of Hockney's art, according to one essay in this catalogue of a traveling exhibit, is a "yawning sense of absence," an unfulfilled desire for connectedness. The transplanted Yorkshireman's pictures capture Southern California's pools, palms and play with deadpan seriousness. This album lets the reader decide whether Hockney's paintings, collages and prints are more than the febrile imaginings of a slick eclectic. His grid-like composite photographs attempt to convey "lived time"; in jaunty set designs and costumes for The Rake's Progress, The Magic Flute and Tristan und Isolde, he rummages through the vast terrain of art history. All the media in which Hockney has worked are amply represented here, yet overall his output has come to look monotonous and lightweight.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.