Given the news, this deserves a re-blog. I studied one of Hockney’s opera designs at the Royal Opera House – Richard Strauss‘s Die Frau ohne Schatten – for an A-Level art project, not expecting to meet him. But I did, and he was incredibly helpful. We met four times in total. The whole thing was quite mind-blowing and doubtless shaped the rest of my life. You can read the full story in the original post.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything Hockney said, and I don’t like everything he produced – for me, his later work never quite matched his earlier brilliance – but that doesn’t take away from what a trailblazer he was – as an artist and for gay representation – and what a kind and generous man, nor from the fact that he produced some of the greatest art of his generation.
Paul Burgess 