In 1963, David Hockney visited California for the first time. The young artist’s vision of Los Angeles in the sixties was that of a hedonistic and liberal haven, with the city’s sun-drenched affluence representing a world entirely removed from his upbringing in Bradford, West Yorkshire. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1964, Hockney returned to Los Angeles – initially with the intention of staying there for only six months. However, the city soon became his adopted home and he settled in the Hollywood Hills – finding inspiration in the vivid colours, dramatic vistas, and the vibrant atmosphere of postwar optimism.
If you are interested in adding to your collection speak to one of our art consultants now - email us at info@halcyongallery.com
‘The Hollywood Collector’
At the heart of A Hollywood Collection is Hockney’s fascination with the culture of art collecting in Los Angeles. Conceived as an ‘instant art collection,’ the series lightly satirises those who purchased art purely as a status symbol. Each lithograph appears already ‘framed’ and ready to hang, presenting the viewer with a curated selection of artistic genres deemed fashionable in the 1960s. Hockney explained:
'It's a kind of joke thing, a kind of home-made art collection with bits of everything in it, a nude, an abstract, a landscape and so on. I was working with a printer in Hollywood whose workshop was behind a framer’s. He had all these marvellous frames in the window. I got interested in this trompe l'oeil thing - a picture of a thing with something else within something else.'
The portfolio reflects Hockney’s continued interest in the relationship between artists and collectors, a theme which he explored throughout the sixties through monumental portraits of collectors. California Art Collector, painted the previous year in 1964, and the double portrait American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman), painted in 1968, exemplify Hockney’s enduring fascination with the personalities and social aspirations of those who acquire art.
Capturing a Location
A Hollywood Collection is rooted in the visual culture of Los Angeles, particularly the atmosphere of Hollywood in the mid-1960s. Hockney was captivated by the city’s ‘artificial beauty’ – its dazzling surfaces, strong light and clean lines – an aesthetic reflected in this carefully constructed portfolio. Arriving in this new and rapidly developing city, Hockney observed that ‘there were no paintings of Los Angeles. People then didn’t even know what the city looked like.’ As a result, the artist set out to capture the specificity of the place: the people, the architecture, the foliage, the weather, and even details as seemingly mundane as street signs.
His focus on location is central to Picture of Melrose Avenue in an Ornate Gold Frame (1965), which serves as a visual record, not just of the appearance of the street but also of Hockney’s experience of the city as a young artist immersed in a new culture. Through the fluid effect achieved by lithography, Hockney enlivens the sky and clouds of the background, capturing the climate of the city. Contrasted with the simplified geometric forms of modernist architecture, Hockney translates the urban landscape of West Hollywood into a striking composition which foreshadows his iconic painting A Bigger Splash (1967).
A year prior to the creation of A Hollywood Collection, Ken Tyler (who would become Hockney’s longtime print collaborator) had set up his own print workshop on Melrose Avenue. Gemini Ltd – later renamed ‘Gemini G.E.L.’ – became one of the most influential print studios of the twentieth century, collaborating with artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Helen Frankenthaler. The location of Melrose Avenue is later referenced in Hockney’s Wind from his six-part Weather Series (1973), highlighting the importance of the print workshop for the artist as a site of abundant creativity.
Abstraction
The abstract work in A Hollywood Collection elucidates Hockney’s playful and at times ambivalent relationship with abstraction. Through bold geometry and primary colours reminiscent of artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, who began collaborating with Gemini G.E.L. in the 1970s, Hockney references the visual language of postwar abstraction. The title ‘Picture of a Pointless Abstraction’ playfully questions the seriousness of the genre, serving as an affectionate homage.
Hockney’s ongoing dialogue with abstraction has been reignited in recent years. In the wake of his current exhibition, A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting, at the Serpentine in London,the 88-year-old artist told Andrew Marr that ‘there’s too much abstract painting being done now.’
Although Hockney resisted pure abstraction throughout his career, the inclusion of this lithograph in A Hollywood Collection foreshadows his later experiments. During the 1990s, inspired by the sweeping landscapes and undulating hills surrounding his home, he produced a series of abstract lithographs influenced by Cubism and concerned with rhythmic movement and spatial perception. Works such as Pushing Up (1993), explore how colour and form coalesce to create a dynamic composition which invites the viewer into the visual space of the artwork.
A Hollywood Collection is both a celebration and a critique of the artifice and pre-packaged commodification of art in America during the sixties. Through this series, Hockney frames Los Angeles as a place of glamour, spectacle, and carefully constructed identities. Embedded in humour and a deep affection for the city, the series encapsulates Hockney’s astonishing versality and eclecticism, as well as the enduring influence of California on his artistic output.
