The office of alumni relations, with the Los Angeles Chapter of the CMCAA, hosted an exclusive opening night reception at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Sunday, June 11, celebrating the work of British artist David Hockney. During the evening, more than 125 CMCAA members were treated to VIP tours of the exhibit.
Although his work has been presented at LACMA on two previous occasions, David Hockney Portraits is the first exhibition devoted solely to Hockney's portraiture and represents a half-century of the artist's career. Portraits include about 160 examples of Hockney's work, starting with his first pen and ink drawings while a student at Bradford School of Art and also at the Royal College of Art, and concluding with his most recent works a return to large-scale portraits. Also highlighted are never-before-seen portraits, more than 40 personal sketchbooks, and preparatory photographs from the 1960s.
"It's a visual diary of his life and his loves," Sarah Howgate, contemporary curator at London's National Portrait Gallery, said in the June 6 issue of the Los Angeles Times. London's National Portrait Gallery organized the exhibition with Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with LACMA. "I find the exhibition incredibly moving," Howgate said.
LACMA Senior Curator Stephanie Barron told the newspaper, "Looking at the portraits over a span of years provides a window into the nature of the relationship between the artist and sitter. The portraits," she says, "also reflect the style and medium that Hockney is working in at that particular moment."
The successful chapter event was full days in advance of the event, with a waiting list.