Belfast set to host David Hockney art exhibition

David Hockney photographed by Jane Bown in London 1966  For Observer Review archive series. 
© Guardian News & Media LtdDavid Hockney photographed by Jane Bown in London 1966  For Observer Review archive series. 
© Guardian News & Media Ltd
David Hockney photographed by Jane Bown in London 1966 For Observer Review archive series. © Guardian News & Media Ltd
An exhibition of paintings by the artist David Hockney will be held in Belfast in the late summer and autumn.

The display of his art will open at the MAC on August 19.

Hugh Mulholland, senior curator at the MAC, said: “We are delighted to be presenting the first significant exhibition of David Hockney’s work in Ireland to date.”

The exhibition focuses on Hockney in the 1950s, when he was at Bradford Regional College of Art, and will include anatomical and observational drawings. Later work, that shows his ongoing “interest in pushing the boundaries of his practice using new technologies”, will also be on display.

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David Hockney  Le Plongeur Paper Pool 18 (1978)David Hockney  Le Plongeur Paper Pool 18 (1978)
David Hockney Le Plongeur Paper Pool 18 (1978)

Mr Mulholland said: “We are very pleased to be able to show a series of his iPad portraits of family and friends as well as some of his well-known works from The Arrival of Spring, 2011, which many visitors may recognise.”

Noirin McKinney, director of arts development at the Arts Council of NI, said: “David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century and an important artist within the 1960s Pop art movement.  “The Arts Council is delighted to support the MAC in bringing this exciting, significant art exhibition to thousands of our citizens and will inspire many more people to come visit Belfast.”

Born in 1937, the exhibition marks Hockney’s 80th year. It is entitled ‘David Hockney: I draw, I do’ from an answer he gave to the designer Paul Smith, who asked: “Do you still draw in the more traditional way, in the way you first did?”

Hockney replied: “Yeah, I draw, I do ... From the age of 16 to the age of 20, all I did was really draw, because I was at the art school in Bradford and in Bradford you could be in the school from nine in the morning to nine at night... So I drew for four years. I don’t know what art schools are like now, but I’m told they don’t do drawing. That seems a bit mad to me that. Drawing is going to be needed in the future.”

Visit themaclive.com for details on the free exhibition, that runs until October 16.

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