Image: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Art historian and novelist Dr James Cahill will explore David Hockney’s first encounter with Los Angeles in the 1960s, an encounter presented as transformative for the artist.
The talk will consider Los Angeles’s brilliant light, its sun-drenched swimming pools and its sense of possibility, examining how these elements captured Hockney’s imagination.
It will also address Hockney’s chance meeting with Beverly Hills collector Betty Freeman and the lasting impact that meeting would have on his life and work.
Moving between Hockney’s celebrated California paintings and the much longer history of the colour blue in art, Cahill will explore connections between Hockney’s Los Angeles and the work of artists including Hokusai.
Works from the gallery’s collection will be used to examine how this evocative colour has been used, interpreted and reinvented across centuries.
