From the Archive: David Hockney Artist Talk

This 1985 talk by David Hockney was given in conjunction with SFMOMA’s presentation of Hockney Paints the Stage, the first exhibition to display the artist’s celebrated set designs and paintings side by side. Hockney does not speak directly about his set pieces, but instead tracks the evolution of one-point perspective as he understands it personally. He begins with a group of 35 paintings by Pablo Picasso that collectively tell a single story, despite often being understood as distinct artworks. He goes on to observe that Cubism and Chinese scroll paintings possess a temporal dimension that was largely lost after the emergence of vanishing-point perspective in the Western world. Finally, Hockney discusses how his own photographic collages attempt to emancipate photography from representing a single perspective, arguing for the necessity of a broader approach to perspective in modern art. Hockney is introduced by Graham Beal, SFMOMA’s chief curator from 1984 to 1989.