David Hockney Gallery opens just days before the artist’s 80th birthday
A “Hockney disco” inspired by his remark “I hate background music… I only like music in the foreground” is also being held on Sunday.
A new David Hockney Gallery has opened – just days before his 80th birthday and in the city where the artist was born.
Curators want visitors to the gallery, in Bradford, to be inspired by “what this local boy has achieved”.
Hockney’s father Kenneth made the piece, which says “art is fine practice makes perfect”, while visiting Cartwright Hall, which is home to the new gallery.
The gallery also features family photographs from Hockney’s personal albums, shown for the first time.
Curator Jill Iredale said the exhibition shows the “incredible early years of Hockney’s work in the immediate context of his family and surroundings, something only truly possible… in his home city”.
She added: “It has been fascinating to look closely at the work Hockney created whilst still living in Bradford.”
“It is our hope that this new gallery will inspire people in Bradford and beyond – especially young people who feel like they may have something to offer creatively – to take inspiration from what this local boy has achieved.”
Hockney’s landmark birthday on Sunday will also be marked with free events in the city – including a Hockney disco inspired by his remark: “I hate background music… I only like music in the foreground.”
Now living in Los Angeles, Hockney was born in the Eccleshill area of Bradford on July 9, 1937 and attended Bradford College Of Art before going on to study at the Royal College of Art.
It featured famous works of the 1960s and 70s as well as his celebrated images of the Yorkshire landscape and Hollywood hills.
