David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)

  

David Hockney - BIGGER And CLOSER - a massive, technically ground-breaking, immersive art exhibition at the newly opened LIGHTROOM Artspace  located in London's recently revitalized King's Cross Arts-District

 

        

My friend, the artist David Hockney invited me to London to see and photograph the final rehearsals of his newest, technically complex and simply breathtaking, exhibition, "Bigger And Closer."   Certainly a most fortunate and profound honored for me. Here are a few of my pictures of this incredible, and hands down, completely unique from all others, immersive art presentation from David Hockney.  

 

 "Bigger And Closer" includes motion, films, photographs, animation and the most exceptional asset, his own personal narration. Hockney's ongoing narration creates an atmosphere that makes this huge exhibition feel far more like an intimate studio visit with an old friend.  As David guides us through his lifetime of work, he explains the ideas which continue to inspire his art for over 60 years.  Now 85, David is up early each morning, working away, with paintings, drawings, photography and now the newer art creating digital technologies.

All the floors and walls, every possible surface is full of art, an equally exciting event for children as well

In his Los Angeles studio, 1970s 

Growing up in the rural country side of Yorkshire, David is deeply moved by nature and landscape; currently much of his time is spent living and making art at his farm in Normandie, France.

 

Hockney Paints the Stage - Early opera inspired works from the 1960s & 70s

DH adding just a few final touches as the hours tick down before the big reveal. "What is he up to now?" Something not to be missed. 

Feb. 22 Through Oct. 1

LIGHTROOM

12 Lewis Cubitt Square
London, N1C 4DY

 

 

Los Angeles Art Show - L.A. Convention Center

"Street Light, Downtown" ©2010 Jim McHugh

"Fire Road Above the Sunset Strip" © 2007 Jim McHugh

"Maroon Valley Diptych"  © 2010 Jim McHugh

With the exception of "Fire Road Above the Sunset Strip," the new pictures that will be shown at the LA ART SHOW have not been exhibited before. Quite by surprise, the selected images are all color. A mix of Colorado and Los Angeles. I ran across an interesting quote by Ansel Adams before while shooting in Colorado, " Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer, - and often the supreme disappointment. " I was very conscious of that while I was photographing in Colorado. What looks so perfect to your eye can be so flat and undirected in a picture. How do you build depth into a two dimentional photograph? How do you create a real sense of space and size? How do you approach a genre that has been so definitively and beautifully photographed by Eadweard Muybridge, Ansel Adams and many others. Like the cityscapes of Los Angeles, I try to look at everything as a portrait, not to be recorded, but to be interpreted. My greatest inspiration as a photographer is often painters.  In this recent work the English artist John Constable is always in my mind, with his powerful presence of clouds and skies. 

Vernissage is Wednesday, January 19th at 7pm.

January 20-23, Daily 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Los Angeles Convention Center

West Hall A • Booth E-150

310 278 4400 info@yargerfineart.com 

Jim McHugh is represented by Timothy Yarger Fine Art

at the Los Angeles Art Show 2011

Yarger Fine Art - Jim McHugh - Art Miami 2009 Dec 1st-6th.

Jim will be appearing at Art Miami next week during The Basel Miami Art Week courtesy of Timothy Yarger Fine Art, @ Booth B-76.

Rue Du Bac- LA Skies at Transacmer

What a great evening, I was so pleased to see so many people attend, with such an interest in these images of a vanishing time.

L.A. Skies Paris Show

L.A. Skies

I'm really excited about my upcoming show in Paris. I printed the entire show on Innova Fiber paper which feels like it was made for these specific images. I think the quality of the prints is stunning. Holding detail for color and depth in darker imagery has been so important. The prints are being framed now in France, at the Dupont Lab in Paris.

It will be very interesting for me to see how a European audience responds to these very classic noir images of Hollywood and Los Angeles. The photograph of the Asbury is the first picture I've produced using the newer Fuji 4x5 instant film.

Julius Shulman

Architectural Photographer Julius Shulman

"He, in my opinion and the opinions of many, is the most important architectural photographer in history. He elevated what you might consider a commercial genre to a fine art,"

Gallery owner and long time friend, Craig Krull

I photographed Julius in November of 2008. The camera he is holding is the one he began shooting with in 1936.

His photographs are examples of what the very best can be. Any serious photography involving architecture must be looked at in relationship to the work of Julius Shulman. His way of photographing will never again be duplicated.

A Master of a series of technically demanding skills he was able to capture with a large format camera in a single shot on a sheet of film the perfect picture- meticulously lit and balanced. But above all else it was his vision as an artist that defined an era.

With his passing one senses a great continent has slipped back into the sea.

Julius Shulman 1910-2009

photo: David Sirh

"We went out to breakfast after the photographs were taken...at age 98 Julius spoke excitedly about the shoot he had just completed the day before... the assignments he had coming up...and all the while he was finishing off a very large stack of pancakes... Some days remain forever!"

From 'A Photographer's Life: Just One More'

Polaroid Photograph of Julius Shulman 11"x 14" - ink on Innova archival paper

First published in Art and Living Magazine, Special Artists Issue - 2008

© 2008 Jim McHugh www.McHughArtistsArchives.com