Looking at Art and Racism: Changing people's belief of the world using Art, Series One Day Four.
David Hockney "Fallen Timbers" 2009
Day Four: Fallen Timbers by David Hockney. David Hockney is one of the most recognized
contemporary English artists and one of my favorite artists, who is still painting at 82 years old. He
was born in Bradford in Yorkshire one of the great industrial cities of the North of England that had
been dealing in textiles since the industrial revolution. Many of the inhabitants of Bradford when he
grew up, would have been hard-working industrial workers. In his youth, it would have been a smoky
city with houses blackened from coal used in the mills. Hockney's father was a clerk and Hockney
once said he learned many of his better qualities by observing the qualities his father did not
possess. In particular, he was talking at this time of his work ethic and the endless energy he puts
into his work, which were qualities he did not believe came from his father.
Hockney has a wide range of artistic skills he is recognized for his printmaking, drawing, painting,
watercolors set making, computer illustration to name just a few. He is as comfortable being an
abstract painter, as he is being a figurative painter and is an almost perfect example of an artist who
uses the same Elements and Principles of design in both disciplines. His main interests are in line,
color, texture, patterning, and shapes and in movement throughout his painting.
The stand of beeches and sycamores as captured by David Hockney in his winter version of Bigger Trees Near Warter.
Hockney is gay and has never kept this a secret and used his gay lovers in some of his famous
pictures of people. It was not until 1967 that homosexuality was legalized in England and Hockney
was one of the first British artists to acknowledge his sexuality in his work. Hockney has always loved
to draw and drawing has always been a central element to his work.
The Bradford and Leeds {another close city}, are very different cities to his childhood, During the
1950's and1960s there was huge immigration from Pakistan to England, particularly to the mill towns
and cities. They replaced a lot of the white mill workers, as they were happy to work long hours for
little pay. Many of the buildings have been cleaned and look beautiful without their black soot layer.
Hockney himself bought a three-floored woolen mill in the quaint Milltown of Saltaire, where many
of his paintings are housed. The current proportion of people of Asian descent in Bradford is 26..83
% a much higher proportion than in most English cities.
There have been racial tensions between the Asian immigrants and the white communities and
concern about terrorist interest in some of the youth at the mosques for some years and grievances
have come to a head at times.
I chose " Fallen Timbers" because I love many of Hockney's landscapes. There is a particular beauty
to the Northern English countryside. This painting, as you can see is huge and is one of several that
Hockney made of this place. It is a place where Hockney finds solitude. I love the Complimentary
colors that he uses and the richness it gives. The Purples and yellows and red and green, I love the
sweeping of the road and the swirling of the trees. I have chosen to include a second painting in a
more realistic style of the same view. in the second painting, the fork in the road is more evident.
In so many ways, like these roads, the world is at a crossroads. Racism is prevalent and impacting
peoples lives to an unbearable degree, the environment is being destroyed at an alarming rate, there
is a widening gap between rich and poor in many countries, Empathy is at an all-time low and anger
and violence are becoming more prevalent. But there are two roads we can take,, we can choose
between these two. We can take to the same road of destruction, where things will get worse and
worse,, or my hope is that we will take/choose the other road, the new road, that leads to a better
world for all.
The trees in their summer foliage.
As an Amendment to this article, I would like to add the following. While Hockney was painting this
painting, which he planned to be a series of four paintings one for each season, two things
happened. The old truck that he had painted in this painting and in the Fall painting above was
vandalized and then chopped down in March 2020. so Hockey adjusted the unfinished painting to reflect this. see https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/19/david-hockney-destruction-tree-stump:
Then sadly later in March, all the trees were chopped down, Because of a health and safety order by
the government. As you will see in the next article David Hockey was devastated!
The first painting I have shown of "Fallen Timber" shows what he did with his unfinished painting,
instead of being about spring, It became about the life and death of this beautiful spot he had found
close to his home. The second two, show the scene in winter and summer before the vandalizing and
chopping down of the trees. An artist always has to be prepared and adjust for changes in nature in
his paintings. But these two changes were man-mad, the stripping of the trees being something that
could never be repaired in Hockney's lifetime! But caused Hockney to produce a painting that was
far superior, in my opinion, to the other two,
Comments
Post a Comment