Havoc Dyed Ink: Hockney by Birtwistle

Havoc Dyed Ink featured David Hockney by Adam Birtwistle. Pop Art's foremost icon meets Britain's pre-eminent portraitist.

In 2001, Adam Birtwistle visited David Hockney in his studio, the meeting of two extraordinary and inventive minds. The following year, as a result of the studies Birtwistle made during this meeting, he painted two portraits of Hockney. One was purchased by The Berger Collection, Denver Art Museum, Colorado,  and the other by Glyndebourne Opera House, for whom Hockney created many stage sets, and hangs alongside Birtwistle's portraits of Sir George and Lady Christie, and Sir Peter Hall in the dining hall.

Working up the studies from 2002, and with a new painting of Hockney from 2015, Birtwistle returned to this encounter of a decade earlier. Between 2002 and 2015, Hockney's status as national treasure has risen even higher with the huge success of his A Bigger Picture RA retrospective in 2012, yet Birtwistle strips away the noise of fame, recognising in the face of Hockney a kindred creative spirit. Candid, playful, revealing, these studies, sixteen in total, give the sensation of sustained time in the company of Hockney. Simple yet bold in execution, Birtwistle captures shifting poses and attitudes: the artist has become the model for Birtwistle's sharp and inventive eye. The surreal humour for which Birtwistle is renowned is evident in the splashes of black and red ink of belt and braces. Intriguing, revealing, yet mysterious still, Birtwistle's series permits us, encourages us, to take up an armchair with Hockney.

For further information please contact the gallery.