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A Bigger Message

Conversations with David Hockney

Martin Gayford

£16.95

The bestselling book of conversations between David Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford as they explore the nature of creativity

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Also available as an eBook from iTunes, Amazon

Overview

David Hockney’s exuberant work is highly praised and widely loved, but he is also something else: an incisive and original thinker on art. In this remarkable book, a record of a decade and a half of conversations with art critic Martin Gayford, Hockney reveals via reflection, anecdote, passion and wit the fruits of his lifelong meditations on the problems and paradoxes of representing a three-dimensional world on a flat surface. Their conversations are punctuated by wise and witty observations from both parties on other artists, and enlivened by shrewd insights into some of the diverse people Hockney has encountered along the way.

This updated and expanded edition follows the preparations for the successful ‘A Bigger Picture’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2012, the works done subsequently in Hockney’s native Yorkshire and his return to Los Angeles in 2013. Visiting him there, Gayford depicts both the sitter’s and the artist’s world as he has his own portrait painted by the artist.

Indulging the reader throughout by sharing Hockney’s sense of humour, Gayford finishes the book commenting and chatting with Hockney as he paints works depicting people in movement: dancers and jugglers. In his quest for a bigger and better picture of the world, Hockney remains very busy: ‘I don’t have a diary because it’s always full already,’ he tells us.

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Reviews

'A remarkable picture of Britain’s greatest living artist'
Daily Telegraph

'Elegantly and simply written … full not only of good-quality reproductions of Hockney’s paintings, but characterful photos of the artist at work'
Observer

'A rewarding book that turns out to be far more than simply the story of how and why Hockney made his most recent pictures. It offers a series of snappy essays on the complicated act of looking'
Times Literary Supplement

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Product Information

Book Details

Format: Paperback with flaps

Edition Type: Updated and expanded edition

Size: 22.9 x 15.2 cm

Extent: 304 pp

Publication date: 2 May 2016

ISBN: 9780500292259

About the Author

Martin Gayford is art critic for The Spectator and the author of acclaimed books on Van Gogh, Constable and Michelangelo. He is the author of Man with a Blue Scarf, Rendez-vous with Art and A Bigger Message. He has collaborated with David Hockney on A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney and A History of Pictures, and has co-written a volume of travels and conversations with Philippe de Montebello: Rendez-vous with Art.