CRAIG BROWN: Not a pretty picture, is it, Mr Hockney?
CRAIG BROWN: Not a pretty picture, is it, Mr Hockney?
What if we lived in a world where artists were treated like politicians, and politicians were treated like artists?
ANDREW NEIL: So, David Hockney. You have recently painted pictures of fields and trees in the summer. All very nice. But let me put this to you. Many of our viewers must be asking themselves: surely a man of his age and experience has something better to do with his time?
DAVID HOCKNEY: Well, Andrew…
ANDREW NEIL: OK, let me put it a different way. Are you really trying to tell me that they haven’t been painted by countless other artists before you, and, some might say, with greater expertise?
DAVID HOCKNEY: All I’m trying to do, Andrew, is…
ANDREW NEIL: Yes, what exactly is it that you are trying to do?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I…
What if we lived in a world where artists were treated like politicians, and politicians were treated like artists? (Pictured: British painter David Hockney at the Orangerie museum in Paris in October last year)
ANDREW NEIL: It’s a question that needs answering. And I’ll tell you why. Many of our viewers will be saying to themselves, ‘It’s all very well going out and painting all those fields and trees in the sunshine or whatever. Fair enough.
But why should innocent walkers and ramblers let Mr Hockney clog up our country’s footpaths with his easels and his canvases and his paints and so forth? Why shouldn’t we be allowed to ramble in peace?’ What do you say to that, Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I try not to get in anyone’s way, Andrew, and I…
ANDREW NEIL: If that is the case, you have a very peculiar way of going about it. Only last week, there was a report of a rambler saying — and I quote — ‘I was going for a pleasant walk when I came across David Hockney and his easel blocking my way. It came as quite a surprise.’
So let me ask you this. Is it part of your overall plan, Mr Hockney, to deliver unpleasant surprises to total strangers?
DAVID HOCKNEY: Well, I…
ANDREW NEIL: Yes or no, Mr Hockney? Yes or no?
DAVID HOCKNEY: To be honest, I don’t really understand what you’re…
ANDREW NEIL: Yes or no?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I’m not sure I…
ANDREW NEIL: Yes or no , Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I can’t really say. I mean…
ANDREW NEIL: OK. So you’re not prepared to give a straight answer to a straight question. That is your choice. Let’s move on to your earlier work.
In the 1970s, you painted pictures of young men in swimming pools in notably well-heeled areas of California.
DAVID HOCKNEY: Yes.
ANDREW NEIL: Yet that was at a time when ordinary hard-working men and women back in your home town of Bradford were struggling on low incomes and harsh working conditions. True or false, Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: Well, yes, I suppose that’s true to a certain ext…
ANDREW NEIL: But that didn’t give you pause for thought, did it, Mr Hockney? And at no point did you ever offer them an apology.
DAVID HOCKNEY: No, but…
ANDREW NEIL: Ah! So you admit that no apology was ever forthcoming and that as you were sunning yourself doing your fancy daubing in the pampered pool-side environs of affluent California, hundreds if not thousands of men and women were leading very different lives, bowed down by poverty, wondering just where their next meals were coming from. Not a very pretty picture, is it, Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I…
ANDREW NEIL: Let’s turn to your use of colour. Bright reds and yellows and blues and greens. Some would say over-bright, even garish. Isn’t it time you toned it all down, Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: I like to celebrate the colours in nature, to try to capture…
ANDREW NEIL: Now you’re talking about capture. That’s an odd word for a self-proclaimed artist to employ, is it not, Mr Hockney. The language of terrorism. The language of kidnap and murder.
Such language will bring grief to many. Do you now regret your use of that particular word — ‘capture’— Mr Hockney?
DAVID HOCKNEY: What I meant was…
ANDREW NEIL: I’m not interested in what you meant, Mr Hockney. I am interested in what you actually said. That’s all for this week. Join me next week when I cross-question Dame Judi Dench about why, despite all widespread calls for her resignation, she refuses to make way for a younger woman.
To be continued…
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