Hockney: The Biography Volume 2

The final say on Britain's best-loved, most colourful and controversial artist: David Hockney.

Christopher Simon Sykes grew up in East Yorkshire, and went on to become a photographer and writer. His work has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, the Sunday Telegraph magazine and Architectural Digest among others, and he wrote and presented Upper Crust, a six-part series on country-house cookery for BBC Two. He has written six books, including The Big House and Country House Camera, photographed fourteen, including The Rolling Stones on Tour and The Garden at Buckingham Palace, and he co-wrote the autobiography of Eric Clapton. He is married with two children and a step-daughter, and lives in North London.

As seen in Drawing From Life exhibition at National Portrait Gallery, 2023 
 
In this fascinating and entertaining second volume, Christopher Sykes explores the life and work of Britain's most popular living artist. 
 
David Hockney's career has spanned and epitomised the art movements of the past five decades. Volume 1 covered his early life: his precocious achievement at Bradford Art College and the Swinging 60s in London, where he befriended many of the iconic cultural figures of the generation. Picking up Hockney's story in 1975, this volume finds him flitting between Notting Hill and California, where he took inspiration for the swimming pool series of paintings; creating the acclaimed set designs for operas around the world; and embracing emerging technologies – the camera and fax machine in the 1970s and 80s, and most recently the iPad. Hockney's boundless energy extends to his personal life too, and this volume illuminates the glamorous circles he moved in, as well as his sometimes turbulent relationships. 
 
With unprecedented access to Hockney's paintings, notebooks, diaries and the man himself, this second volume continues the lively and revelatory account of an acclaimed artist and an extraordinary man.

Christopher Simon Sykes

The astounding first volume, exploring the fascinating world of the most popular living artist in Britain today. 
 
As seen in Drawing From Life exhibition at National Portrait Gallery, 2023 
 
David Hockney's career has spanned and epitomised the art movements of the last five decades. His story is one of precocious achievement at Bradford Art College, the Swinging 60s in London where he befriended many of the iconic cultural figures of the generation, to California and the cool of the swimming pool series of paintings, through the acclaimed set designs for countless operas around the world and major retrospective exhibitions at The Tate and The Royal Academy of Art. 
 
With unprecedented access to interviews, family and friends and Hockney's own notebooks and paintings, this volume will deliver an honest and revelatory account of the man who many believe to be Britain's greatest living artist.

Christopher Simon Sykes

Books by Christopher Simon Sykes

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