David Hockney's legacy and artwork in York and beyond - by MAXINE GORDON
DAVID Hockney was not just Britain's best-loved and most successful artist – he was Yorkshire's.
Here we look back at David Hockney's legacy and artwork in York and beyond.
Born in Bradford, he had strong ties with North and East Yorkshire, living between 2005 and 2013 in Bridlington.
Some of his most famous works in the latter part of his career were inspired by his many visits to the Yorkshire Wolds.
Ever the pioneer, he often used an iPad to capture the unique beauty of this corner of Yorkshire, often setting up by the side of the road to sketch and paint nature through the seasons.
It was a particularly creative spell for the artist, who first became famous for his iconic paintings of swimming pools in Los Angeles.
In contrast, his works depicting hawthorn hedges and roadside piles of timber scattered through the Yorkshire Wolds took Hockney in a different direction – reaching new audiences and winning admiration from art lovers worldwide.
York took him to its heart when he showed his world-famous work Bigger Trees Near Warter at the City Art Gallery in 2011. The giant artwork – painted in oil on 50 separate canvasses and then pieced together – measures 15ft by 40ft and took up the entire wall of a room at the gallery.
It captures a clump of trees without leaves in autumn at Warter, the tiny village four miles east of Pocklington.
Hockney appeared at the opening of the York show, and while visitors stood in awe at the painting, he did not seem overawed, commenting with a gentle: “It looks very good.”
An acclaimed exhibition at the Royal Academy in London followed, featuring scores of art works of the Yorkshire Wolds. The show then travelled to Spain and Germany.
Read more:
More : Following Hockney's footsteps in the Wolds
More: The making of Hockney's Westminster window
In 2016, Hockney was given the unique commission of designing a stained glass window for Westminster Abbey, celebrating the Queen’s reign.
Again, this tied the artist with York because his design was transferred into stained glass by Barley Studio in York. Helen Whittaker, the creative designer for Barley Studio, and Keith Barley, the founder of the studios, worked closely with Hockney on the project.
The artist chose to design an almost abstract window of bright, glowing colours – the kind of yellows, reds, blues, pinks and greens he is famed for.
Among the motifs was a Hockney favourite – the hawthorn tree. For a brief four days of the year when it flowers, this tree is "(like) the moment when champagne looks as though it's been poured over all the bushes. It's a rather celebratory thing," the artist explained.
Stained glass expert Helen went to see the artist in his studio in California as part of the commission: and he also visited her and her team at Barley Studio in York a couple of times.
You can see the final masterpiece today in Westminster Abbey – just one of the many lasting legacies of Yorkshire's best-loved artist.
Today, fans can see one of the biggest collections of Hockney works up close at Salts Mill near Bradford.
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