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David Hockney: A Taste for Los Angeles

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Abstract

Three of Hockney's paintings from the 1960s feature art collectors in their ranch-style homes in Los Angeles. Each contains a sculpture by William Turnbull and one also includes a work by Henry Moore. I argue that Hockney's paintings of California art collectors refl ect upon the changing nature of his painting practice, if not contemporary English art as a whole, and its place in the world. They highlight the ways in which Los Angeles became a means for Hockney to contest a certain infl uential sort of English midcentury modernism. Hockney was not alone among his compatriots in visiting Los Angeles in the 1960s. Jet travel between London and Los Angeles by English artists, dealers, and critics fostered an increasing appreciation of the city and its cultures seen in images by Peter Blake, writings by Reyner Banham, and exhibitions mounted by Robert Fraser and John Kasmin.

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Article
A gallery is at once an architectural space, a curatorial project, a business enterprise and a set of social relations. The Kasmin Gallery (1963's72) was both influential in bringing to London work by American abstract artists (Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler and Frank Stella) and instrumental in shaping the early careers of British artists (Anthony Caro, Richard Smith and David Hockney) by placing them under contract and promoting their work abroad. This account of the Kasmin Gallery draws on extensive archival and interview material, first to describe the construction of its innovative interior 's designed by Ahrends Burton Koralek 's and then to explore its relations with artists, critics, curators, collectors and other dealers in the booming international art market of the 1960s.
Historian of the Immediate FutureEncounter with Sunset Boulevard', The Listener
  • Nigel Whiteley
  • Reyner Banham
Nigel Whiteley, Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future, Boston, MA, 2002, 225. 38 Reyner Banham, 'Encounter with Sunset Boulevard', The Listener. 80, 22 August 1968, 235–6;
Los Angeles: All our futures or America's past?
  • Peter Self
Peter Self, 'Los Angeles: All our futures or America's past?', Town and Country Planning, 40, March 1972, 173–5;
46 Charles ChamplinLos Angeles and London: A mirror image', The Los Angeles Times White Heart: A History of Britain in he Swinging Sixties 7 Local collectors who lent works by Moore to the exhibition included Taft Schreiber
  • Banham
45 Banham, 'Encounter with Sunset Boulevard', 236. 46 Charles Champlin, 'Los Angeles and London: A mirror image', The Los Angeles Times, 14 May 1967, A36. 47 Dominic Sandbrook, White Heart: A History of Britain in he Swinging Sixties, London, 2006, 243. 7 Local collectors who lent works by Moore to the exhibition included Taft Schreiber, Milton Sperling, Frederick Weisman, Burt Lancaster, Eugene V. Klein, Morris Teriman, Oscar Grossman, Vincent Price, Rex Evans, Bart Lytton, and Egardo Acosta.
Moore art hails the human spirit B3. See also Henry J. Seldis, 'Henry Moore art show will open at Barnsdall'
  • Henry J Seldis
  • J Henry
  • Seldis
Henry J. Seldis, 'Moore art hails the human spirit', Los Angeles Times, 10 November 1963, B3. See also Henry J. Seldis, 'Henry Moore art show will open at Barnsdall', Los Angeles Times, 8 November 1963, G7; and, Henry J. Seldis, 'Henry Moore', Art in America, 51, October 1963, 56–9.
18 Gerald NordlandCollecting in Los Angeles That same year Henry Geldzahler published 'Los Angeles: The second city of art', in Vogue
  • My Stangos
  • Early
Stangos, My Early Years, 98. 18 Gerald Nordland, 'Collecting in Los Angeles', Artforum, 2, Summer 1964, 12–18. That same year Henry Geldzahler published 'Los Angeles: The second city of art', in Vogue, 144, 15 September 1964, 42, 56, 62–4. Both authors discussed the Weismans' art collection.
20 Hockney went on to proclaimCalifornians are very proud of their C. Stills' in 'Britannia's new wave', Time
  • My Stangos
  • Early
Stangos, My Early Years, 103. 20 Hockney went on to proclaim, 'Californians are very proud of their C. Stills' in 'Britannia's new wave', Time, 9 October 1964, 79. 21 Paul Melia and Ulrich Luckhardt, David Hockney, Munich, 1994, 68. 22 Gerald Nordland, 'Europe in California', Arts, 37, May–June 1963, 17. 23 See David Goodway, ed., Herbert Read Reassessed, Liverpool, 1998, especially Andrew Causey, 'Herbert Read and contemporary art', 123–44 and Kevin Davey, 'Herbert Read and Englishness', 270–86.
A decade of Moore's work at Whitechapel', Arts
  • Reyner Banham
24 Reyner Banham, 'Futurism for keeps', Arts, 35, December 1960, 33. 25 Alan Bowness, 'A decade of Moore's work at Whitechapel', Arts, 35, February 1961, 16. 26 Herbert Read, Contemporary British Art, Baltimore, MD, 1951, 39, and p. 50 of the 1964 edition. 27 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Englishness of English Art, London, 1956, 11. See Peter Draper, ed., Reassessing Nikolaus Prevsner, Aldershot, 2004, especially Andrew Causey, 'Pevsner and Englishness', 161–72.
The new scene' and Alan BownessSome recent history' in London: The New SceneLondon/NYC: The two-way traffi c'. See, also, Margaret Garlake
  • Martin Friedman
  • London
28 Pevsner, The Englishness of English Art, 19. 29 Martin Friedman, 'London: The new scene' and Alan Bowness, 'Some recent history' in London: The New Scene, Minneapolis, MN, 1965; John Russell, 'London/NYC: The two-way traffi c'. See, also, Margaret Garlake, New Art, New World: British Art in Postwar Society, New Haven, 1998. 30 On the American dominance over the mass media after the 1939–45 war, see Pells, Not Like Us. See, also, Simon Philo and Neil Campbell, 'Biff! Bang! Pow! The transatlantic Pop aesthetic, 1956–66', in Neil Campbell, Jude Davies and George McKay, eds, Issues in Americanization and Culture, Edinburgh, 2004, 278–94;
Cultural Offensive: America's Impact on British Art since 1945 32 Stangos, My Early Years, 99. 33 Stangos, My Early Years, 98. 34 Stangos, My Early Years, 100. 35 Edward Lucie-Smith, 'London commentary', Studio International
  • Alex Seago And
  • A John
  • Walker
Alex Seago, Burning the Box of Beautiful Things: The Development of a Postmodern Sensibility, Oxford, 1995, especially ch. fi ve; and, John A. Walker, Cultural Offensive: America's Impact on British Art since 1945, London, 1998, especially ch. seven. 31 Russell, 'London/NYC', 134. 32 Stangos, My Early Years, 99. 33 Stangos, My Early Years, 98. 34 Stangos, My Early Years, 100. 35 Edward Lucie-Smith, 'London commentary', Studio International, 171, January 1966, 35. 36 On Los Angeles in the European imagination after the 1939–45 war, see Pells, Not Like Us, 1658.