Amanda Hodges looks into an exhibition of DAVID HOCKNEY’s early drawings and finds the young artist obsessed with close observation and detail
CHARLESTON IN FIRLE, EAST SUSSEX is currently hosting an intriguing new exhibition of David Hockney’s early drawings. Once home to painter Vanessa Bell, Charleston, in the heart of the South Downs, became the country base for many of the Bloomsbury Group, some of the 20th century’s most innovative collection of writers, thinkers and artists.
It’s surely the ideal place to view the work of one often considered our greatest living artist, a man of versatile, eclectic talent who takes perennial delight in experimentation. As Hockney recently recalled on The South Bank Show, “From about eight years old I wanted to be an artist. I knew this. I just wanted to draw and make pictures.” And today he retains enthusiasm for every type of art: “I’m interested in all kinds of pictures however they are made; with cameras, with paintbrushes, with computers, with anything.”
Exhibition curator Chris Stephens says artist and venue are a natural fit since “Charleston and Hockney are historically intertwined. Hockney was an early supporter of Charleston on its journey to becoming a trust and opening to the public,” and he adds, “drawings were also a really important part of the Bloomsbury group’s practice.” In addition to this, given the often fluid nature of their personal lives, Stephens emphasises, “Charleston is a place that spotlights queer artists. Hockney’s art shows intimate moments amongst his contemporaries, friends and lovers. His is a strong queer iconography which, in its time, would have been very radical.”
Organised by the Holburne Museum in Bath, Hockney’s upbeat creed of ‘Love Life’ lies at the heart of this exhibition, one celebrating his artistic roots, specifically drawings from the 1960s and 1970s when he led a peripatetic existence between LA, London and Paris. In 2017 Hockney painted the words ‘Love Life’ on the wall of a show in the Pompidou Centre, Paris. When asked why, he replied that this simple phrase succinctly conveys his personal philosophy, saying “I love my work. And I think the work has love, actually. I write it at the end of letters: ‘Love Life,’ David Hockney.”
His enduring zest and deep connection with the world are well ▶ reflected within the scope of this exhibition wh
