Art Hag

Last Thursday I ventured up to Pace Wildenstein's East 57th Street location to check out the second part of the two-venue exhibtion David Hockney: Paintings 2006-2009, alongside a couple of large tour groups consisting largely of ladies who lunch. Fortunately the uptown venue has two floors, so I attempted to avoid the masses by alternating levels with them (with moderate success). Whilst they viewed the landscapes downstairs, I tucked up the spiral staircase to see Hockney's portraits and vice versa.

The lower level contains additional Yorkshire landscapes similarly bright and colorful to the ones on view at the Chelsea gallery, however the uptown canvases are not as large (the largest in this group was The Big Hawthorne, 2008, consisting of nine panels). While these landscapes are lovely, they do not seem quite as polished as the ones in Chelsea. I noticed a small dead insect stuck in the paint of Blossom en Plein-Air, Woldgate I, (2008) and a random red squiggle of paint above the timber in More Felled Trees on Woldgate, (2008) along with areas not completely filled in with color.

The highlight at the East 57th Street location for me is certainly Drawing in a Printing Machine, 18 recent, large-scale (~49" x 33.5") portraits by Hockney in the upstairs gallery (Pace Prints). Hockney's inkjet-printed computer portraits were created "drawing live models on a tablet connected to a computer monitor". The drawings feature his subjects seated in brightly colored, sparsely furnished settings. Hockney captures postures or gestures giving the viewer a hint of the sitters' personalities. My favorites in the collection include a cocksure sailor, the artist's nattily dressed assistant Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, and his brother Paul, who bears a striking resemblance to the artist.

Hockney is rightfully one of the biggest and most beloved living artists from England, as well as an amusing raconteur and personality. Read this article from the New Statesman from June in which the artist's curmudgeonly, cigarette-loving charm shines through. Definitely try to catch these exhibitions at both Pace Wildenstein locations before they close. David Hockney: Drawing in a Printing Machine is on view at Pace Prints at 32 East 57th Street, 3rd floor, until November 28th and David Hockney: Paintings 2006-2009 is on view at 32 East 57th Street, 2nd floor, and 534 West 25th Street until December 24th.

Matetlot Kevin Druez 1, 2009