Parker Cars Magazine: Issue 4

They’re calling it “his most comprehensive exhibition
yet”. Early next year Tate Britain is gathering
together some of David Hockney’s most famous
paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, videos and
digital works. But it’s the man behind the art that is
often most intriguing. Here, we look back at the key
episodes in his life and examine how and why he
constantly reinvented himself as an artist.
Childhood in Bradford
Growing up in Bradford, Hockney was the fourth of
five children. At one time his father Kenneth started
a business restoring prams, often decorating them
intricately with paint – a process that the youngster
loved to watch. “The fascination of the brush
dipping in the paint, putting it on. I loved it,” he told
Christopher Simon Sykes, author of his biography.
This was one of his earliest experiences of the
artistic process.
Bradford College of Art
After signally failing to impress as a scholarship
student at Bradford Grammar School, Hockney was
given a place at Bradford College of Art where most
of the teachers wanted simply to churn out future
employees for the advertising and printing trades. In
order to study pure painting he had to pretend that
he wanted to train as an art teacher. “It meant lying
to get there,” he said.
He used to visit the major art galleries of London
as often as possible. Always hard up for cash, he and
his friends would leave college on a Friday evening
and hitchhike to the capital overnight. Arriving
early morning they would buy a ticket for the
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