community
hockney and some of the sitters for 82 portraits and one still-life
exhibit at the los angeles
SITTING FOR HOCKNEY The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
is premieringDavid Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life, with paintings that were done between 2013 and 2016 and that Hockney considers to be a single body work. One of the subjects of Hockney’s portraiture was
LACMA’s Senior Curator of Modern Art, Stephanie Barron andThe Rage Monthly corresponded with her about her experience sitting for Hockney. Barron and Hockney have shared a nearly four- decade long friendship and during this timeframe, she has had several chances to sit for the artist. “I have known David since the late 1970s and have had the privilege of sitting for him before, in the 1980s and 1990s,” she said. “But those portraits were executed relatively quickly and were smaller in scale.” With a different method being employed by
Hockney as far as technique goes, Barron explained how the opportunity came about for her to sit for him again and what that entailed. “In December 2013, while David was visiting the Calder and
county museum art. photo by catherine opie
by brad shaw Artist David Hockney rose to prominence during the 1960s as part of the British Pop Art scene, with
his influences running the gamut from Matisse to Tom of Finland. The openly gay, English-born painter eventually relocated to Los Angeles in 1964, shuffling between there, London and Paris. It was during this initial period that he was inspired to paint a series of paintings with the topic of swimming pools, Hockney also delved into the nature of gay male lifestyle in such famed works as We Two Boys Together Clinging and Domestic Scene, Los Angeles.
Abstraction exhibition at LACMA, he asked me if I would like to come up to his studio so that he could paint my portrait,” Barron explained. “I knew that he was painting a series of similar-scale portraits, and I was thrilled to say. ‘Yes.’” “This would be something quite different,” she
said. “David asked for a commitment of three con- secutive days, to give him what he called a ‘20-hour exposure.’ It was up to each sitter to determine what to wear for the session; having seen several portraits David had completed in the months prior, I noticed that strong colors definitely stood out, and I decided to wear something red.” Barron found the experience to be both thrilling
and nerve-wracking, being under the watchful eye of the famed artist was incredibly intense. “Working quickly with charcoal, David sketched directly onto the canvas, fixing the outline of my head, my body and the chair in order to capture the freshness of my pose,” Barron detailed. “His intense gaze and careful scrutiny were a bit daunting at first, but after a while I
eased into a state of thoughtful observation.” “It wasn’t easy being subjected to such critical
examination; it made me wonder how my thoughts were being transmitted to David, and how he was capturing this on the canvas,” she explained. “His observation is unrelenting and his portraits are never meant to flatter, but he does ‘get’ his subjects.” The opportunity became something akin to being
a student sitting before the teacher in a Master Class, in terms of what Barron was able to witness as a subject of his portrait. It is an experience that she will always treasure, as she explained, “As a curator, it was an absolute privilege to observe the creation of this portrait. I found the process absorbing. It taught me a lot about portraiture and how artists work,” Barron stated. “Seeing how quickly he worked and was able to capture my pose, expression, and clothing details within the first ninety minutes was a revelation. And then seeing how he returned several times to my face, hands, and feet during the three days was also fascinating. I was enthralled, exhausted from the concentration and immensely honored by the whole experience.”
David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life is on view at LACMA, Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Level 3 in the Nathanson Galleries through Sunday, July 29. For more information, call 323.857.6000 or go to
lacma.org.
stephanie barron
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RAGE monthly | JULY 2018 RAGE monthly
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