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Ian caught up with Ann Bukantas as this famous picture was unveiled at the Walker Art Gallery earlier in the week.
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David Hockne y’s famous painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy which is on loan until late January 2010. This painting was short-listed for the title of ‘Greatest Painting in Britain’ in a 2005 poll launched by the BBC’s Today programme.
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Hockney began this portrait of fashion designer Ossie Clark and fabric designer Celia Birtwell shortly after their wedding, at which Hockney was best man.The couple are shown in their London flat.Hockney made drawings and took photographs there, but they also modelled in his studio owing to the painting’s size.The cat on Clark’s lap is actually thought to be ‘Blanche’, but Hockney felt ‘Percy’, the name of the couple’s other cat, sounded better.
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Hockney struggled with the painting for nearly a year, re-working Clark’s head as many as 12 times.He aimed to capture the couple’s complex and unconventional relationship, along with its tensions.Traditional conventions of wedding portraiture are reversed,with the man seated while the woman stands. The couple’s marriage didn’t last. Hockney once commented that,“Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy probably caused it”.
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This is one of a series of large double portraits that Hockney began in the late 1960s. Although some areas appear flattened or simplified,Hockney felt it was one of his paintings that came closest to Naturalism.
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David Hockney is one of the most celebrated living British artists.He is a versatile painter, draughtsman, printmaker, photographer and stage designer. Born in Bradford, he studied at Bradford School of Art and at the Royal College of Art, London.Hockney has worked with landscape, still life and portraiture – a recurring preoccupation.
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Hockney won a junior prize in the 1961 John Moores Liverpool exhibition, and in 1967 he won first prize with Peter Getting out of Nick’s Pool, now in theWalker Art Gallery’s collection.
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Hockney turned to using acrylic paints for a decade in 1964,with thin, smooth surfaces of brilliant colour characterising his paintings from this time. Through his portraiture,Hockney has explored themes including self-image, personality, sexuality and relationships.He has always preferred to depict people he knows, such as friends and family, highlighting the sense of collaboration between artist and sitter. His double portraits of the late 1960s and early ’70s have been described as his greatest achievements.