By Daniel Wong
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The exhibition “Photoworks,” a retrospective of the
photographic artwork of world-renowned artist David Hockney, has
finally made its way home to California.
After a successful European tour, the show will make its only
appearance in the United States at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in downtown Los Angeles, now until Oct. 21.
The British-born pop artist first gained prominence for his
colorful, vibrant paintings of swimming pools and the Southern
California landscape. “Photoworks” is the first
exhibition to focus on Hockney’s experimentation with
photography.
As Jeremy Strick, MOCA’s director, said, Hockney’s
work has helped redefine photography.
The show encompasses Hockney’s extensive work with
photography and contains more than 200 individual pieces.
“Photoworks” displays many photographs from
Hockney’s private collection, including rare photos of the
artist’s friends and associates such as Andy Warhol. The
exhibition also includes several self-portraits. Many of these
images have never been publicly displayed until now.
According to Strick, having such a large number of images in one
exhibition allows the viewer to see how Hockney’s distinctive
photographic style evolved over time.
Strick said that the show has a narrative element to it.
You can see how he “worked in series and how each series
was inspired by a new technology discovery or an interest in a
particular subject matter,” he said.
The exhibition chronicles the shift of photography from a
supplemental tool in Hockney’s art ““ used primarily as
an aid to help Hockney create and document his paintings ““ to
an important artistic medium in its own right. The exhibition
showcases several of Hockney’s “grid”
photographs, along with photo collages, which Hockney calls
“joiners.”
Grid photographs are composed of dozens of individual polaroid
pictures fashioned into a larger image.
“Photoworks” also contains several examples of
Hockney’s signature photo collages including his most
recognizable work, “Pearblossom Highway,” on loan from
the Getty museum.
In his photo collages, Hockney transforms mundane objects such
as a cart of school supplies and a stretch of Arizona highway into
fascinating studies of the way we perceive the world around us.
Hockney uses multiple photographs to accentuate different aspects
of objects in the collages, a stop sign for example, by showing
different views of the object at the same time. Although
stylistically similar to the cubist paintings of Picasso and
Braque, Hockney is not interested so much with the conveying a
sense of temporality but is more concerned in quantifying the act
of perceiving itself.
Hockney uses these innovative techniques to explore many of the
traditional themes of paintings such as portraiture, still-lifes
and landscapes.
In addressing the audience at the exhibition’s opening,
Hockney discussed some of the themes that he examines in his
photographic work. One of the important issues deals with the
problem of conveying a three dimensional reality on a flat
surface.
“I have always felt the one thing a photograph could not
do was give you a feeling of space,” Hockney said.
The place that embodies the concept of space most according to
Hockney is the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
“I have never seen any photograph of the Grand Canyon that
is anything like the real experience,” Hockney said.
“I tried to photograph the unphotographable,” he
added.
Hockney said he considers his image of the Grand Canyon to be
more real than traditional photographs of the famous landmark
because his work more accurately conveys the experience of
perception.
While explaining “Husbandry in the East Riding”
Reinhold Misselbeck, the curator of the exhibition, described
Hockney’s unusual depiction of the English countryside.
It is an attempt to “compose a single memory of the
landscape as one passes through it,” he said.
Another important aspect of his work, Hockney said, is the use
of technology. Hockney uses fax machines and laser printers to
create some of the images showcased in the exhibition.
“Photoworks” also includes examples of
Hockney’s early experimentation with digital photography.
Hockney said that he is always interested in new technological
developments in image-making, and keeps abreast of new trends by
watching films like “Toy Story” and
“Gladiator.”
“Technology has made photography more like
painting,” he said.
He added that the advent of computer programs like Photoshop,
have made it easier to manipulate and alter images. When people
look at a photograph now, they often question whether or not it is
reality that they are observing.
Hockney believes that chemical photography is dying and that
artists are at the beginning of a new era of image making. Despite
advances in the medium that have enabled artists to alter reality,
there are restrictions to these new technologies.
“Artists will always need scissors and a pot of
glue,” he said.