David Hockney's continuing belief in the importance of the portrait and his virtuoso skill in
creating a sense of close communication between artist sitter and viewer has resulted in some
of the best-loved works of the postwar era. From the 1950s on Hockney's most persistent
subject matter in paintings drawings collages and photoworks has been of people usually
very close to him as well as of himself. These works are narratives of autobiographical
relationships: they reflect the intimate and often intense stories of this artist's life. They
also explore different formal ways of representing the passage of time and at the same time the
unavoidable but marvellous stillness of portraits. The works include fascinating sequences as
he paints his mother or Henry Geldzahler or Celia Birtwell on and off for decades the special
qualities attached to depictions of lovers and the range of celebrities writers and artists -
Billy Wilder Armistead Maupin W.H. Auden Henry Moore Christopher Isherwood - who have been
part of a very full life. The text by a distinguished European critic and curator reinforces
the point that this hugely popular English-born artist who made America his second home has
become a figure of worldwide appeal.
