Hockney's Photo-Cubism
When we hear the name David Hockney (1937), we have the notion that he is one of the most recognized British artists within the art world. With an unbelievable curriculum and a plurality transversal to several artistic areas, it presents its greatest expressiveness within the Pop Art movement, but it is transversal to several others.
Known for his works that are interconnected and mixed with his life, Hockney has always tried to transfer his personal experiences into his works, and with that comes photography, as a witness of what he has seen.
Hockney has always used photography as a way to capture the reality that was later painted, showing the passage of time, but in a static way. From the moment he thought about this device and how he could show his point of view on things, he created a new photographic concept entitled “Joiner” (80').
“Joiner” is a type of multiple photography, of a space or object, capturing various angles, through several captures that are later composed, creating a single photograph, giving the viewer a better notion of observation about the theme, as well as the power to be able to better observe the space. Here, Hockney, presents another important point: the idea of a narrative within an entire work, a narrative that can be understood as the movement of the spectator's gaze within the observation that the artist intends to be made.
In this photographic technique, reality is presented to us in a fragmented way, as it happens in the paintings of the avant-garde movement - Cubism.
In Cubism, this form of thought and execution is also perceived: the idea of representing something, from different planes and different points of view. Hockney has a huge influence from Pablo Picasso, and uses that to rescue, in a very experimental way, something that had remained in the past, in order to make this vision so advanced at that time contemporary.
As had happened with Cubism, here, the artist also gives a new perception, both in the way of seeing space and the way it is presented, as well as, in the way of seeing art. I dare to say that we are facing a new way of seeing and producing images.
Are we facing a technique, or a revival of a “neocubism”, but using technology to update itself? Or can we even speak of a “photo-cubism”? We can say that David Hockney is a master, who draws on the work of others, and who has influenced, and will continue to do so, many other masters in the future.
For the time being, we can only dwell on the aesthetic connections and similarities between these two masters and their works, taking advantage of and envisioning these great works.
Pearblossom Hwy., 11 - 18th April 1986, #2April 11-18, 1986David Hockney (British, born 1937) GETTY MUSEUM