Whist still at school doing my A levels I remember looking at various artist for inspiration with my final Art exam. It was then that I first discovered David Hockney's portraits of Christopher Isherwood and his lover. Bold, prismatic, supernally pop, apologetically homoerotic and also unique in their recherche portrayal of masculine beauty they provided all the ping! a girl like me required. As a result I convinced my then boyfriend to pose in the nude for a portrait which I later gave to one of my teachers. But I digress. The reason I relayed the above is because David Hockney - once the high panjandrum of British Pop Art - has now taken up painting Yorkshire pastorals. His latest one, Bigger Trees near Warter, which he has kindly donated to Tate Britain will go on display sometime next year. I have no doubt the work in question will dazzle critics and public alike but personally I'm not convinced. Don't get me wrong the work is nice enough but 'nice' is not a word I would have used for Hockney in the past. I feel a little disappointed with his choice of subject matter but I guess he couldn't go on producing collections called 'Fuck' forever. Still, he didn't have to turn his brush to painting landscapes either.
