David Hockney has got a problem with perspective. He doesn’t like it very much — at least not the linear perspective that is taught as the staple of studio practice — and in a new series of paintings and photographs made over the last couple of years, the influential veteran has advanced new theories on perspective and how there might be other ways of doing things.
Referencing Filippo Brunelleschi’s experimental panels that established linear perspective as the standard in the 1400s, Hockney points to the use of optics as having introducing the vanishing point into paintings, which he believes creates a disconnect between the viewer and the picture. With his new works, created at his Los Angeles studio in 2014 and 2015, Hockney aims to put the viewer in the picture by photographing elements separately, giving each one its own vanishing point and therefore the piece as a whole several different perspectives. Look, I’m just telling you what he’s said. More from the man himself: “It is this (process) that I think gives them an almost 3D effect without the glasses. I think this opens up photography into something new… digital photography can free us from a chemically-imposed perspective that has lasted for 180 years.” Painting and Photography goes on display at Annely Juda Fine Art in London from 15 May until 27 June.
David Hockney
“The Group V, 6-11 May” 2014
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72″
© David Hockney
Photo, Richard Schmidt
David Hockney
“The Red Table” 2014
Photographic drawing printed on paper, mounted on Dibond
42 1/2 x 69 1/2″, Edition of 25
© David Hockney
Photo, Richard Schmidt
David Hockney
“Card Players #1″ 2014
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72”
© David Hockney
Photo, Richard Schmidt
David Hockney
“JP, JM, JW in the Studio” 2015
Photographic drawing printed on paper, mounted on Dibond
30 x 60 1/4″, Edition of 25
© David Hockney
Photo, Richard Schmidt
David Hockney
“Studio Interior #2″ 2014
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72”
© David Hockney
Photo, Richard Schmidt
