David Hockney

March 5, 2012
Writer and photographer Sykes’s love for the work of David Hockney, one of the most celebrated contemporary artists, is evident in this energetic, absorbing, if only mildly critical, first volume of an authorized biography. Drawing on extensive interviews with the artist, his mother’s diaries, and interviews with Hockney’s associates, Sykes skillfully integrates Hockney’s private history with his public, artistic life to provide unusual insight into both his emotional and professional life. Spanning the period from Hockney’s birth in 1937 through his collaboration with director John Cox on a new stage interpretation of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, Sykes organizes his narrative into detailed but swiftly paced chapters, beginning with Hockney’s youth in Yorkshire, England, where observing the simple, practical painting of his father restoring prams and bicycles first inspired the boy to become an artist. Young Hockney was a bit eccentric, the class clown, a developing homosexual, and an underachiever in every subject save for art, which he pursued persistently and prolifically, eventually at London’s Royal College of Art. Most interesting is Hockney’s early and continued support for gay rights and the importance of travel abroad for his artistic inspiration and personal development. Sykes’s revealing text is complemented by sketches, drawings, and personal photographs. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency.

October 15, 2014
Hockney from age 38 to 75, bubbling with enthusiasm. In this second lively volume of David Hockney's authorized biography, Sykes (David Hockney, 1937-1975, etc.) covers the artist's peripatetic, energetic years of fame: major exhibitions (a 1988 retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art attracted 16,000 visitors the first week), commissions to design opera and ballet sets, and an outbreak of Hockneymania when his work was exhibited at the esteemed Tate Gallery in London. Typically working from dawn (painting the sunrise from his bedroom window) to dusk, Hockney, a friend told Sykes, "loves to work until he's so exhausted...his body has already caved in. At that moment he's making his discoveries and those are inspirational." The artist thrived on discoveries, which increasingly involved new technologies. Quantel Paintbox allowed him to layer colors without muddying them. He also played with a photocopier, which he found much more creative than lithography, producing "the most beautiful black I had ever seen on paper." The fax machine inspired "endless experiments" in tone and led to his creating pictures made up of more than one sheet of paper, to be assembled by the recipient. Faxing also enabled him to communicate more easily than by telephone, which became impossible as Hockney became increasingly deaf. He was excited by the Brushes app on the iPhone, the process of digital drawing on an iPad, and especially the computer, which enabled him to make huge pictures. For a 10-gallery exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, he produced the largest work ever hung in the gallery's history. Only the AIDS epidemic and loss of friends and colleagues dampened Hockney's irrepressible spirits. Drawing on interviews with Hockney, his siblings, and colleagues; Hockey's autobiography; and diaries of famous friends, such as Christopher Isherwood and Stephen Spender, Sykes matches his subject's ebullience in this admiring, well-researched life.

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November 1, 2014
Sykes continues his meticulously detailed, multivolume biography of the ever-replenishing font of creativity that is artist David Hockney. The second installment begins with Hockney simultaneously enjoying and fleeing from fame as he touches down in Los Angeles, Paris, London, and his home in Yorkshire, all while perpetually drawing, painting, and taking photographs. Nomad that he is, Hockney develops a passion for cross-country drives, which shape his landscape paintings and spectacular opera set designs, while his own life turns operatic as he struggles with faltering relationships, AIDS tragedies, and hearing loss. Sykes articulates all the verve, ingenuity, and complex struggles involved in the protean Hockney's deep inquiry into the nature of perception while also illuminating his influences, from his great hero, Picasso, to Ingres, Thomas Moran, and Chinese scrolls, and recounting his eager embrace of new technologies and the resultant complex photo collages, sumptuous iPad drawings, and stunning, high-definition videos. Working with panache, tenacity, and energy through both depression and exhilaration, Hockney is an artistic genius in perpetual motion, declaring, in his seventh decade, I'm only just finishing my middle period. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2014

Published in 2012, David Hockney: The Biography, 1937-1975; A Rake's Progress won praise as the go-to title on this influential contemporary artist. Now, here's the second volume, showing how Hockney has expanded his range, leading the art world's charge into the digital revolution. Written with exclusive access to Hockney and bound to brighten up your day.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 10, 2014
In this exhaustive biography, Sykes continues the second part of his chronicle of the life and work of Hockney, the British painter, photographer, printmaker, and stage designer. The detailed story resumes with the artist accepting an invitation to spend a heady social season on Fire Island, which was all "sex drugs and rock 'n' roll," and continues through his trips between homes in London and Los Angeles. Sykes vividly conveys the passion behind Hockney's engagement with new technologies and art practicesâincluding his panoramic photo collages with Polaroids, and his pioneering use of photocopying, Paintbox technology, iPhones, and iPadsâand examines the artist's major inspirations, including life in Hollywood, which resulted in some of his best known works, and his road trips across the United States. Meticulously woven together from correspondences, interviews, and diaries of family and friends, Sykes's revealing narrative offers intimate reflections and anecdotes. The many individual perspectives make for a candid portrait that explores everything from Hockney's dinners and parties with the likes of Allen Ginsberg and David Bowie, to his devotion to his mother, his relentless work ethic, his occasionally difficult personality, and his anxieties about the spread of AIDS and his own advancing age. This even-handed and diligent account is a worthwhile examination of the artist some have called "Britain's greatest living painter." Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency.