DAVID HOCKNEY

IN

David Hockney is one of Britain's greatest artists, and his work stands out for its vivid colors, typical of modernism, and also for the dimensional power of his flat creations. This study analyzed more than 400 works available on the author's website. But what ultimately characterizes David Hockney's work? Fans would say: the colors, and anyone, even those unfamiliar with his work, would agree.

PERSPECTIVE

BY ISABELLA MOURA
Objeto 1
Objeto 2
Objeto 3
1950s, the first paintings
Hockney has explored many techniques over more than seven decades of work. Where has he landed?
California in the 1960s
The 1960s and 1970s marked the artist's consecration, with paintings such as Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972, and A Bigger Splash, 1967.
The 2000s, the digital age
He started with a computer, tried the iPhone, but it was the iPad that gave him comfort.

Zoom out to understand the artwork

People are sitting down to have their portraits taken, which is very common in David Hockney's work. He likes chairs and benches, and loves to show that the portraits are being taken of people who are sitting down. Hockney's work is vast, spanning more than seven decades, and continues to be added to in the current decade.

But portraits are not unique and characteristic of his estate; we cannot forget the vases, plants, and flowers, the trees, mountains, and roads... ah, the swimming pools.

Exploring the artist's various phases necessarily implies understanding that there was experimentation and adaptation. The decades and techniques are a journey of color and motif. It is not possible to reduce the colors to the whole of his work, but we can try to approximate it. Therefore, we will increase the scope and zoom out on his work.

img 1 img 2 img 3 img 4 img 5 img 6 img 7 img 8 img 9 img 10 img 11 img 12 img 13 img 14 img 15 img 16 img 17 img 18 img 19 img 20 img 21 img 22 img 23 img 24 img 25 img 26 img 27 img 28 img 29 img 30 img 31 img 32 img 33 img 34 img 35 img 36 img 37 img 38 img 39 img 40 img 41 img 42 img 43 img 44 img 45 img 46 img 47 img 48 img 49 img 50 img 51 img 52 img 53 img 54 img 55 img 56 img 57 img 58 img 59 img 60 img 61 img 62 img 63 img 64 img 65 img 66 img 67 img 68 img 69 img 70 img 71 img 72 img 73 img 74 img 75 img 76 img 77 img 78 img 79 img 80 img 81 img 82 img 83 img 84 img 85 img 86 img 87 img 88 img 89 img 90 img 91 img 92 img 93 img 94 img 95 img 96 img 97 img 98 img 99 img 100 img 101 img 102 img 103 img 104 img 105 img 106 img 107 img 108 img 109 img 110 img 111 img 112 img 113 img 114 img 115 img 116 img 117 img 118 img 119 img 120 img 121 img 122 img 123 img 124 img 125 img 126 img 127 img 128 img 129 img 130 img 131 img 132 img 133 img 134 img 135 img 136 img 137 img 138 img 139 img 140 img 141 img 142 img 143 img 144 img 145 img 146 img 147 img 148 img 149 img 150 img 151 img 152 img 153 img 154 img 155 img 156 img 157 img 158 img 159 img 160 img 161 img 162 img 163 img 164 img 165 img 166 img 167 img 168 img 169 img 170 img 171 img 172 img 173 img 174 img 175 img 176 img 177 img 178 img 179 img 180 img 181 img 182 img 183 img 184 img 185 img 186 img 187 img 188 img 189 img 190 img 191 img 192 img 193 img 194 img 195 img 196 img 197 img 198 img 199 img 200 img 201 img 202 img 203 img 204 img 205 img 206 img 207 img 208 img 209 img 210 img 211 img 212 img 213 img 214 img 215 img 216 img 217 img 218 img 219 img 220 img 221 img 222 img 223 img 224 img 225 img 226 img 227 img 228 img 229 img 230 img 231 img 232 img 233 img 234 img 235 img 236 img 237 img 238 img 239 img 240 img 241 img 242 img 243 img 244 img 245 img 246 img 247 img 248 img 249 img 250 img 251 img 252 img 253 img 254 img 255 img 256 img 257 img 258 img 259 img 260 img 261 img 262 img 263 img 264 img 265 img 266 img 267 img 268 img 269 img 270 img 271 img 272 img 273 img 274 img 275 img 276 img 277 img 278 img 279 img 280 img 281 img 282 img 283 img 284 img 285 img 286 img 287 img 288 img 289 img 290 img 291 img 292 img 293 img 294 img 295 img 296 img 297 img 298 img 299 img 300 img 301 img 302 img 303 img 304 img 305 img 306 img 307 img 308 img 309 img 310 img 311 img 312 img 313 img 314 img 315 img 316 img 317 img 318 img 319 img 320 img 321 img 322 img 323 img 324 img 325 img 326 img 327 img 328 img 329 img 330 img 331 img 332 img 333 img 334 img 335 img 336 img 337 img 338 img 339 img 340 img 341 img 342 img 343 img 344 img 345 img 346 img 347 img 348 img 349 img 350 img 351 img 352 img 353 img 354 img 355 img 356 img 357 img 358 img 359 img 360 img 361 img 362 img 363 img 364 img 365 img 366 img 367 img 368 img 369 img 370 img 371 img 372 img 373 img 374 img 375 img 376 img 377 img 378 img 379 img 380 img 381 img 382 img 383 img 384 img 385 img 386 img 387 img 388 img 389 img 390 img 391 img 392 img 393 img 394 img 395 img 396 img 397 img 398 img 399 img 400 img 401 img 402 img 403 img 404 img 405 img 406 img 407 img 408 img 409 img 410 img 411 img 412

Now let's get closer

Hockney's collection of paintings in traditional techniques follows the same logic as his digital work, which in 2010 found a new medium in the iPad. The colors vary and blend together. We still know it is a work by David Hockney, but we are surprised by so many layers of color. Here we explore and invite you to explore: David Hockney's color palettes, first through the combination of traditional techniques for each decade, and then, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the shift to digital.

As much as we can demonstrate that Hockney used many palettes throughout his career, it is possible to look at a set and assume: yes, these are his colors (without excluding all others).

We ventured to associate, in color clusters, the main shades used by the painter in the sample of 412 pieces. This was the result.

All 3x3 squares, with the palettes from the analyzed set, follow this hierarchy pattern. Here is the second most used color.

Here is the third, and so on.

These were the 9 most used colors, and they form the color pallete of the entire set analyzed.

Variation in colors used using traditional techniques, such as paper, canvas, board, and plywood, over the decades.

The painted motifs shape the palette.

Although some colors are always present, there are variations in shade and a clear pattern for each decade.

At the end of the 2000s, Hockney fully embraced digital production.

The computer and iPhone marked the experimental phase, but it was on the iPad that he found a way to continue his work.

Depicting landscapes strongly influenced the color green as the most used. Hockney made digital series dedicated to Woldgate (a rural area in Yorkshire, northern England, where the painter lived) and Yosemite (California National Park).

The blue and the pools

In the 1960s, the painter moved to Los Angeles, and during that decade and the following one, Hockney's work was influenced by swimming pools and references to water. The painter's works associated with this period became a marker of his style and are considered his most important creations. The painting “Portrait Of The Artist (Pool With Two Figures), 1972” was sold in 2018 for $90.3 million. The online catalog, however, leaves no room for doubt: it is marked by the preference in recent years for addressing nature, with an emphasis on trees, mountains, and paths.

Methodology

Data access: Using the BeautifulSoup library, images of Hockney's works were taken from the painter's personal archive, available at https://www.hockney.com/. This information was then organized into a data table by title, year, format, and image link. We used KMeans to classify images and group colors into clusters, and matplotlib to visually create the color palette, which was saved locally.

Analysis and visualization: With the palettes created, KMeans created the color clusters, and Counter was used to count how many times that cluster was used in pixels in the analyzed set. In the end, we used Altair to visualize the 3x3 square and to save the graphics in SVG for a final touch in Illustrator.

All code and data can be found here.