SEEING WITH DAVID HOCKNEY’S EYES.

SEEING WITH DAVID HOCKNEY’S EYES. What I liked about this article is the way it shows David Hockney telling the writer, Carol Kino, how Hockney sees a beloved alleyway of trees, issuing orders on how to look. (“The ash tree now comes in — look at the shape of it! And now then on the right, another tree. There’s a point where each one stands on its own. There. Now. It’s surrounded by sky. Now the next one, and it stands on its own. You see?”) When I was asked how I know that I love a work of art, my answer was that it lets me see the world differently. A good artist is portraying: here is what I see or how I see. Hockney says that he is still trying to work out how to make “a marvelous painting of my experience [in seeing the alleyway.]” I’m grateful that he is working on conveying that experience. (I was also struck by the comment by the chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art that: “I think for many people this kind of representation is something which belongs in the past.” I posted here about Jackie Wullschlager’s observation that: “Landscape in 20th and 21st century art is less than unfashionable – it has dropped off the radar screen.” The curator’s comment confirms Wullschlager’s observation, but I still find it startling.)