DAVID HOCKNEY: WHY ARE THERE NO SHADOWS IN NON-EUROPEAN ART? I have posted several times, including here, about how shadows enable us to appreciate a sense of space. David Hockney had an article in the Financial Times (October 27-28) in which he says: “No art made outside of Europe used shadows. Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Indian…ignored shadows.”
Hockney also tells a story about a westerner who painted a portrait of the Empress of China, who told him; “I can assure you that the right side of my face is the same colour as the left side of my face.”