David Hockney

March 5, 2012
Writer and photographer Sykes’s love for the work of David Hockney, one of the most celebrated contemporary artists, is evident in this energetic, absorbing, if only mildly critical, first volume of an authorized biography. Drawing on extensive interviews with the artist, his mother’s diaries, and interviews with Hockney’s associates, Sykes skillfully integrates Hockney’s private history with his public, artistic life to provide unusual insight into both his emotional and professional life. Spanning the period from Hockney’s birth in 1937 through his collaboration with director John Cox on a new stage interpretation of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, Sykes organizes his narrative into detailed but swiftly paced chapters, beginning with Hockney’s youth in Yorkshire, England, where observing the simple, practical painting of his father restoring prams and bicycles first inspired the boy to become an artist. Young Hockney was a bit eccentric, the class clown, a developing homosexual, and an underachiever in every subject save for art, which he pursued persistently and prolifically, eventually at London’s Royal College of Art. Most interesting is Hockney’s early and continued support for gay rights and the importance of travel abroad for his artistic inspiration and personal development. Sykes’s revealing text is complemented by sketches, drawings, and personal photographs. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency.

February 15, 2012
First volume of an intimate, vivid biography of the ever-evolving English artist. Now in his mid-70s, Hockney is still reinventing himself, most recently with his use of the iPhone. A friend of the artist, photographer Sykes (The Big House, 2004, etc.) provides an excellent sense of what has fed the artist's fertile, restless imagination. Born in 1937 to an antiwar couple in the Yorkshire industrial city of Bradford, Hockney became a scholarship boy who excelled at art but little else. His attendance at the Royal College of Art in London in 1959 drew out the tremendous talents of this awkward provincial kid, exposing him to modern art for the first time, especially currents from America (e.g., Jackson Pollock), and shaping his sense as a gay artist. Pop art exploded, depicting the everyday objects of modern life, and Hockney dallied briefly, such as in the use of graffiti (Doll Boy). Before even graduating, several events proved decisive to the shaping of his career. His work attracted the attention of hot young London dealer John Kasmin, and he visited New York City and resolved to go blonde after watching a TV commercial. He also won the RCA's gold medal, started selling paintings, thanks to Kasmin's relentless promotion, and moved into a large flat in the then-slummy Notting Hill, which would be his base for the next fruitful decade. Considered bright, witty and inventive, Hockney spent the transformative years of 1963-5 in Los Angeles, creating his early iconic work. Teaching at UCLA in 1966, Hockney met Peter Schlesinger, who became an important lover and muse. Experimenting with photography, etching, portraiture and theater and working between London, Paris and L.A., Hockney has never ceased questing. A personal, lively look at this extraordinary artist's career. Readers will eagerly await the second volume.

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November 1, 2011

Photographer and writer Sykesmoves beyond David Hockney's paintings of cool blue California pools to track his entire life and career, from his 1937 birth in northern England to his breakout at a Young Contemporaries exhibition in London to experiments beyond painting, including set and costume design, and more. For art lovers and other sophisticated readers.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
Sykes didn't plan on writing a two-volume biography, but artist Hockney has lived such a torrentially creative, productive, and adventurous life, even two books won't suffice. This lively and lavishly detailed installment begins with a family history and Hockney's birth in 1937, a child who drew from the moment he was old enough to hold a pencil, and ends in 1975, when his fame is firmly established. Vibrant with the bounty of numerous interviews and perfectly paced, Sykes' portrait knits Hockney's life and work together in perceptive and substantiated ways. Charismatic and funny, gregarious, inquisitive, phenomenally skilled and inventive, and forthright about his homosexuality, young Hockney embraced every opportunity to go somewhere new and try something different. And his prismatic, autobiographical, and provocative paintings, prints, and stage designs evolved accordingly during his sojourns in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris. Sykes profiles Hockney's mentors, friends, and loversa veritable who's who of the art world and high societyanalyzes his influences and innovations, and ends on a high note, Ahead lay a time of great excitement. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

November 10, 2014
In this exhaustive biography, Sykes continues the second part of his chronicle of the life and work of Hockney, the British painter, photographer, printmaker, and stage designer. The detailed story resumes with the artist accepting an invitation to spend a heady social season on Fire Island, which was all "sex drugs and rock 'n' roll," and continues through his trips between homes in London and Los Angeles. Sykes vividly conveys the passion behind Hockney's engagement with new technologies and art practicesâincluding his panoramic photo collages with Polaroids, and his pioneering use of photocopying, Paintbox technology, iPhones, and iPadsâand examines the artist's major inspirations, including life in Hollywood, which resulted in some of his best known works, and his road trips across the United States. Meticulously woven together from correspondences, interviews, and diaries of family and friends, Sykes's revealing narrative offers intimate reflections and anecdotes. The many individual perspectives make for a candid portrait that explores everything from Hockney's dinners and parties with the likes of Allen Ginsberg and David Bowie, to his devotion to his mother, his relentless work ethic, his occasionally difficult personality, and his anxieties about the spread of AIDS and his own advancing age. This even-handed and diligent account is a worthwhile examination of the artist some have called "Britain's greatest living painter." Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Literary Agency.

April 1, 2012

In this first part of what will be a two-volume biography of David Hockney, freelance architectural writer and photographer Sykes provides a compelling account of Britain's most famous living painter. Readers follow Hockney from his unconventional upbringing under a socialist father in austere postwar England to his studies at a conservative, upper-class public school and the Royal College of Art in London. It was here where, after a brief flirtation with Picasso- and Pollock-inspired abstraction, Hockney made a decisive shift toward figurative, autobiographical, and sexually themed art. By the early 1960s, Hockney was a rising star in the London pop art scene, winning the accolades of Richard Hamilton and rubbing shoulders with Andy Warhol. VERDICT Recommended for anyone interested in the remarkable life of this highly regarded painter. Rich with archival detail and the insight of family, friends, and the artist himself, the book is an engaging read. Nevertheless, those seeking a broader historical context for or critical insight into Hockney's artwork may want to look elsewhere, as Sykes rarely departs from his narrowly biographical narrative.--Jonathan Patkowski, CUNY Graduate Ctr.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.