TIMELINE
Chronology:
From - Authorized website, David Hockney, Online 22 Feb 2011.
1937 ◷
Born July 9 Bradford, England
1953-57
Studies at Bradford School of Art
1959
Studies at Royal College of Art, London. Sees works of American abstract expressionists, including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.
1960
Sees major Picasso exhibition at Tate Gallery, London. Reads complete works of Walt Whitman.
1961
First visit to the United States.
1962
Makes series of etchings A Rake's Progress.
1963
Executes first shower paintings. First solo exhibition held at John Kasmin, London. Travels to Egypt. First visit to Los Angeles.
1964 ◷
Moves to L.A. Makes first swimming pool paintings. Begins making instant (Polaroid) photographs. Begins working with acrylic paints. Teaches at the University of Iowa, Iowa City (June-July).
1965
Teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
1966
Designs sets and costumes for Alfred Jarry's production of Ubu Roi at the Royal Court Theater, London.
1967
Teaches at University of California, Berkeley.
1968
Creates first large double portraits. Moves to London.
1969 ◷
Makes series of etchings of Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.
1970
Traveling Retrospective at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Creates first photographic “joiners”.
1971
Travels to Japan. Film David Hockney's Diaries made by Michael and Christian Blackwood.
1973
Lives in Paris.
1974 ◷
Solo exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. Designs sets for the ballet Septentrion.
1975
Designs Glyndebourne Festival Opera production sets and costumes for The Rake's Progress.
1976
Returns to Los Angeles. Begins working extensively with photography makes large scale lithographs.
1977
Designs Glyndebourne Festival Opera production sets and costumes for The Magic Flute.
1978
Makes Los Angeles his permanent residence. Makes lithographs and series Paper Pools, made with handmade paper pulp at Tyler Graphics in Bedford Village, New York.
1979 ◷
In February Hockney returns to London. He publishes an article in the Observer (4 March 1979) criticizing the Tate for favouring abstract art in its acquisitions policy. Back in Los Angeles, he works at the Gemini workshop on a series of Matisse-influenced lithographs of Celia Birtwell and Ann Upton. He also produces a series of quickly painted portraits in acrylic, using a bold palette, including a portrait of Divine. He begins designing a triple bill for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, directed by John Dexter: Eric Satie’s ballet Parade and two short operas – Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias and Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.
1980
Designs Metropolitan Opera ‘Triple Bill’, sets and costumes for Parade, Les Mamelles de Tiresias, l'Enfant et les Sortileges.
1981
Travels to China with Sir Stephen Spender & Gregory Evans, May-June. Designs Metropolitan Opera sets and costumes for Le Sacre du Printemps, Le Rossignol, Oedipus Rex, and Paid on Both Sides.
1982
Makes first composite Polaroids and photographic collages.
1983 ◷
Begins to study Chinese scrolls and reads George Rowley’s Principals of Chinese Paintings designs sets for the ballet, Varii Capricci.
1984
Makes “Moving Focus” multi-colored lithographs at Tyler Graphics in Bedford Village, New York.
1985
Designs cover and forty pages for the December 1985 issue of French Vogue magazine.
1986
First home made prints created on photocopiers. Designs and publishes a catalogue of home made prints to accompany his gallery exhibitions. Completes Pearblossom Hwy., 11-14th April 1986 photocollage which is the culmination of his experiments with photography.
1987
Writes, directs and is featured in the film A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or Surface is Illusion But So is Depth, produced by Philip Haas.
1988 ◷
Creates twenty-four original pages for his book, David Hockney: A Retrospective. Creates original prints for local, national, and international publications in connection with his major retrospective.
1989
Makes drawings and transmits them through his AT&T and Canon laser fax machines. Makes multi-page fax pictures (up to 144 pages) utilizing his black & white laser office copy machine.
1990
Works at Tyler Graphics Ltd. on six new prints. Makes color laser printed photographs from his vacation snaps of Alaska and England. Begins a series of oil paintings of the Santa Monica mountains. Experiments with a still video camera taking full length portrait pictures of friends and family. Designs sets and costumes of Puccini's Turandot with Ian Falconer , for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera. (performances scheduled for January 1992 and October 1993).
1991
Makes paintings using ideas from Turandot and Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Makes computer drawings on his Mac II FX computer using Oasis software by Timearts. In the fall begins designing sets and costumes with Ian Falconer for the Richard Strauss Die Frau Ohne Schatten (performances scheduled for the Royal Opera, London, November 1992 and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, L.A., October 1993).
1992
In January, opens Turandot and a painting exhibition in Chicago. Finishes designs for Die Rrau Ohne Schatten and travels to London in the spring to supervise construction of the stage sets. Continues with new paintings in his Malibu studio. Opens Die Frau Ohne Schatten in London in November.
1993
Travels to Barcelona for a retrospective of his work at the Palau de la Virreina in January . Opens a painting exhibition in New York of his "Very New Paintings". Creates twelve prints with Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. Continues research with color laser printed photographs from color slide pictures of travels to Japan, Scotland, and England. Stages his two opera productions in fall 1993, for San Francisco and Los Angeles. Begins portrait and dog drawings in December.
1994 ◷
Creates gouache drawings and collages. Editions four images of his color laser printed photographs. Designs costumes and scenery for 12 opera arias for the T.V. broadcast of Placido Domingo's "Operalia 1994" in Mexico City.
1995
Begins portrait paintings of his dogs, Stanley and Boodgie. Paints large abstracts to exhibit in Los Angeles. Paints BMW art car for the BMW art car collection. Exhibits paintings and drawings at the 1995 Venice Biennale, Italy. Opens his traveling Drawing Retrospective in Hamburg, Germany in the summer. Paints still lifes and makes digital inkjet prints from photographs of paintings. Paints museum walls in Munich for a group exhibition on the subject of the “Pierrot” figure. Opens painting exhibition of still lifes and dog paintings at Rotterdam Museum in the fall, and attends his Drawing Retrospective opening at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Makes five etchings with aquatint with printer, Maurice Payne.
1996
Paints portraits of family & friends in January. Opens his Drawing Retrospective at the L.A. County Museum of Art in February. Creates Snails Space with Vari-lites, "Painting as Performance", March 10, 1996 at his Santa Monica Blvd. studio and exhibits this with other paintings in two New York galleries in May. Begins flower paintings in Summer 1996. Travels to Melbourne to stage his opera production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten in the autumn. Begins portraits in L.A. and continues painting portraits in England during December 1996.
1997
Restages his opera production of Tristan und Isolde (Revival from 1987) at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera in January/February 1997. Continues new portrait paintings, and opens exhibition of flower paintings and portrait paintings in London in the spring. Visits the southwest on two separate occasions during the summer. Celebrates his 60th birthday in Los Angeles. Travels to London at the end of July to receive Order of the Companion of Honour award from Her Majesty, the Queen of England. Makes new oil paintings of the Yorkshire landscape. Opens his photography exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Koln in December.
1998
Paintings and drawings of Stanley & Boodgie are published in a new book called David Hockney’s Dog Days, in Europe and the USA. Begins new suite of etchings with Maurice Payne in Los Angeles. Continues large landscape paintings. Exhibits some of them at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in April. Paints A Bigger Grand Canyon, oil on 60 canvases, with an overall size of 81 1/2 x 293” and exhibits it at the National Museum of American Art, in Washington D.C. in June. Exhibits landscape paintings, drawings and photocollages at L.A. Louver in Venice, California in September. Paints A Closer Grand Canyon and makes other detail studies of the Grand Canyon in oil and in crayon.
1999
Opens three exhibitions in Paris in January and February. In the spring exhibits 1998 etchings at Pace Prints in New York. Installs 9 Grand Canyon paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts, London for the Summer Exhibition. Travels to London and begins portrait drawings using a camera lucida. Exhibits some of the drawings in London, in June. Begins research and correspondence with art historians and friends concerning the use of mechanical devices by Ingres and other artists. Publishes an article in the RA magazine in the Summer 1999 issue concerning his findings. Returns to Los angeles and continues his drawings with the camera lucida, and his research. In the autumn, participates in the “Ingres and Portraiture” International symposium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also gives a talk about his research to the art history department at Columbia University, New York.
2000 ◷
Begins writing a book about his research and theories on old masters use of mechanical devices. During the summer, in London, begins paintings of his garden and continues work on his book.
2001
Completes his book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, for an autumn publication date with Thames and Hudson Ltd., London and Penguin/Putnam Inc., New York. Gives lectures about his discoveries, at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam in February, and at the L.A. County Museum of Art in March. In the summer, travels to England, Germany, Italy and Belgium. Works on a documentary with the BBC about his research and theories. Opens his traveling photography retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in mid-July. Gives lecture for MOCA in August. Attends Die Frau Ohne Schatten rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in September/October. Edits his film, “Secret Knowledge” with the BBC director. Film is broadcast in England October 13, 2001. Exhibits paintings and drawings of his garden in Paris in November. Participates in symposium at NYU Law School in December, concerning his book & film theories.
2002
Has conversation with Lawrence Weschler about his book & film theories at the J. Paul Getty Museum auditorium in Los Angeles in mid-January. Travels to new york in mid-february to work on his opera production revival of “Parade: A Triple Bill” for the Metropolitan Opera. Begins working in watercolor while staying at the Mayflower Hotel in New York. Travels to London in March 2002 and continues his watercolors. Sits for the painter, Lucian Freud, while in London. Assists Her Majesty the Queen of England in presenting the ‘2002 Visual Arts Award’ to a student at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in celebration of the Queen’s 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee. Travels from London to the Norweign fjords and to Iceland and creates watercolors and sketchbooks of his travels.
2003
Begins watercolors in Los Angeles in February. Visits Norway in June. Continues work in watercolor, in London and in L.A. In November, attends the ‘Optics, Optical Instruments and Painting: the Hockney-Falco Thesis Revisited’ conference in Ghent, Belgium. Travels to Florence, Italy in early December to receive an honorary degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and to receive the ‘Lorenzo de’ Medici Lifetime Career Award’ at the Florence Biennale.
2004
Continues watercolors in London. Travels to Spain and France. In March, travels to Yorkshire to begin watercolors of the countryside. Exhibits watercolors at Richard Gray Gallery, New York in March. Exhibits portraits, garden and interior watercolors at the Whitney Biennial in March through May. In May, travels to Palermo, Sicily to receive the ‘Rosa d’Oro’ award. Exhibits a selection of Spanish watercolors at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in June through August. Continues watercolors of Yorkshire through the fall and winter.
2005
Works on a new series of almost life-size single and double oil portraits painted directly onto canvas with no pre-drawing. In February Hand, Eye, Heart, an exhibition of his Yorkshire landscapes, opens at LA Louver gallery. The thirty-six watercolour studies are exhibited as one work. Hockney returns to England and spends the summer in Bridlington where he paints the East Yorkshire landscape in oil ‘en plein air’. Exhibits the single standing figures in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In preparation for David Hockney Portraits. Returns to Bridlington to paint the Yorkshire landscape in the autumn. Midsummer: East Yorkshire is exhibited in the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House, London.
2006
Hockney continues to paint the spatial experience of the East Yorkshire landscape. He develops a method where he is able to work on a large scale outdoors by using multi-canvas paintings that join to form onelarge picture. The first exhibition of these paintings together with their earlier single and double canvas counterparts is at Annely Juda Fine Art, London in September 2006.
2007 ◷
The following year with the aid of digital photography his multi-canvas compositions culminate in the largest painting Hockney has ever made, comprising some 50 separate canvases that were painted outdoors and formed one giant painting measuring 4.5 x 12 meters titled Bigger Trees that occupied a whole wall at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition where it was first shown in 2007. Following his strong interest in watercolour, Tate Britain invited the artist to curate the largest exhibition of Turner watercolours Hockney on Turner Watercolours that was shown from June 2007 to February 2008. To coincide with the exhibition Tate Britain also exhibited a selection of five of Hockney’s latest six-part Yorkshire Landscape paintings from the Woldgate Wood series (previously included in the L.A. Louver exhibition, David Hockney, The East Yorkshire Landscape February March 2007) marking his 70th birthday. Later that year Hockney travels to Germany to see the exhibitionof Edvard Munch at the KunsthalleWürth, in Schwäbisch Hall.
2008
The subject matter of the East Yorkshire landscape in all its various seasons continues to stimulate Hockney. It is a landscape he has known since he was a boy when he used to work on a farm in the area during the school holidays. Gives his 50 canvas painting, “Bigger Trees Near Warter”, to Tate Britain at a Press Conference in April. Exhibits ten of the Woldgate Woods paintings,"Looking at Woldgate Woods" at The Arts Club of Chicago in which all the works shown were devoted to just one of the Yorkshire landscape motifs that inspired him. Hockney begins to use the camera and large format prints as a means of production of the multi-canvas paintings to assist in the assembly of these massive works. His assistant photographs stages of the paintings on location and later makes prints in the studio of the individual panels in order to view them together at a smaller size to track the development of the painting. This method allows him to work on location yet in context of the work as a whole.
2009
Exhibits at L.A. Louver in February and at Annely Juda Fine Art, London, in May, his inkjet printed computer drawings. Travels to Germany for the opening April 26th of “David Hockney: Nur Natur/Just Nature,” an exhibiton of over 70 large format paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and inkjet printed computer drawings at the Kunsthalle Würth in Schwabisch Hall. Returns to England to paint. Begins editioning ‘portraits’ from his inkjet printed computer drawing series. Exhibits new paintings in a double venue show "David Hockney:Recent Paintings" at the PaceWildenstein galleries in New York, in October, his first major show in New York in over twelve years. Nottingham Contemporary opens with “David Hockney 1960 – 1968: A Marriage of Styles” on November 14th through January 24th, 2010.
