A lovely and lyrical book about the power of art to capture beauty and of an extraordinary artist who challenged himself to find it and see it in different ways.
In England during World War II, paper was scarce, so young David Hockney drew on whatever he could find, including the floor! David liked how “drawing made him look more carefully at things.” Throughout the rest of this charming biography by Robert F. Sibert Medal- and Ezra Jack Keats Award- winning illustrator and author Evan Turk, we see how looking carefully helped David find his path in life, through the art world and beyond.
The book takes us through the key phases of David’s life (school, college, moving to California, rising success), keeping the focus on his approach to life and art. This feels appropriate for the age group, but also gets at what any good biography should do—convey a sense of who the person was and not just what they did.
As David honed his art skills as a young man, we read, he learned to “see himself more clearly,” too, and when he had his first crush on a boy at camp, he “didn’t know what this meant for him, but he knew it was exciting”—a wonderfully positive phrasing.
We follow David into art school, where he loved being challenged to see even more, and to college, where he met an openly gay person for the first time. Being gay was illegal in England then, we learn, but David “felt such joy to find a friend who lived without hiding.”
Feeling stifled by England’s gray skies, David moved to California and continued to look and draw, seeing things from different perspectives and finding beauty in sometimes unexpected places, whether swimming pools, people, or scenes of gay life (a shocking subject for some). His success grew, but there were also difficult times, such as when his friends became sick during the AIDS crisis. He drew them pictures to life their spirits.
After returning to England to be with a friend who had cancer, he found he could see his old country in new ways as well, and its landscapes became his subjects, too. His desire to see in new ways never stopped, and even led him to create art on iPhones and iPads. As he grew older, it seemed there was “never enough time” to paint all he wanted—but he knew he could always slow time down by stopping to look more carefully.
Backmatter includes further biographical details, a list of Hockney quotations and works referenced, and an Author’s Note about why Hockney inspires him, as another artist and gay man.
Turk’s colored pencil, gouache, and crayon illustrations do not try to mimic Hockney’s own style, but echo its vibrancy. This is a winning biography that should delight aspiring artists of all identities while also offering a positive vision of a proud gay life, from childhood into old age.
