David Hockney, who died less than a month before his 89th birthday on June 11, maintained a prominent presence in California’s music and art world for half a century.
The acclaimed painter and stage designer had major exhibitions in San Francisco museums, and his four-decades-long work with the San Francisco Opera was acknowledged with the company’s highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal, in 2017 when he was 80 years old.
Among Hockney’s designs for the War Memorial: The Rake’s Progress (1981, 1988, 1999); Turandot (1987, 1998, 2002, 2011, 2017); The Magic Flute (1987, 1990, 2000, 2003); Tristan und Isolde (2006); and Die Frau ohne Schatten (2022).
In the company’s century of history, only Jean-Pierre Ponnelle had as long and vital a collaboration with SF Opera as Hockney.
Hockney’s Turandot, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Frau ohne Schatten were also acclaimed at the LA Opera. The company described his Turandot:
“Opera stages are already big, but Hockney truly makes it feel like there’s a whole kingdom on display in front of us. He employs his skill at forced perspective and allows the sets to continue offstage, past what the audience sees. This creates the illusion of a grand fortress that we’re only seeing a small fracture of.
“Couple this with the bold and expressionistic shapes found throughout the design, and you have a visual spectacle that feels both familiar and boldly surprising.”
When SF Opera’s general manager Matthew Shilvock presented Hockney with the Opera Medal, he said Hockney had been a powerful force in advancing opera as an art form:
“His productions are bold expressions of archetypal emotions, deeply rooted in a strong sense of spatial resonance and scale. His productions take us — audiences and artists alike — on journeys that allow us to see our world more clearly. He finds rhythm in color and design, and creates portals that we enter with thrilling excitement.”
Hockney’s work went beyond scenery. He also designed lighting and costumes, applying his unique style of vibrant colors and bold geometric shapes to fantastical, bizarre, and memorable images.
The singers and dancers who scaled some of Hockney’s strange terrains appreciated his settings. Dancer/choreographer Lawrence Pech said of Hockney’s Turandot:
“The Act I set was a challenging set of stairs raked both to the downstage, but also to stage right, with the dancers needing to manage 15-foot drops while doing gymnastics. The last time we set this, David was there and I got to bow with him!”
Born in Bradford, England on July 9, 1937, Hockney studied at the Royal College of Art and had his first solo exhibition in London in 1963.
He moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and lived there for many years until returning to England. Hockney began designing for the stage in 1966. In 1975, he began creating sets and costumes for ballets and operas. His productions have since been staged around the world.
His vast body of work also includes paintings, drawings, etchings, photographs, and print designs for magazines, books, films, and videos. He used acrylic paints for large portrait studies, turned to prints and photocollages later, along with digital applications.
Hockney was known for his fascination with photocopy and fax machines, still video cameras, computer-generated images, and, in recent years, the iPhone and iPad.
Responding to news of Hockney’s death last week, Shilvock said:
“Throughout his life, David remained on the front edge of what art could make possible, always with an exuberance for life and a twinkle in his eye.
“It has been an extraordinary privilege to have his work fill our theater with color, light, love, and the most glorious storytelling for more than 45 years. His visit in 2017, and the generosity with which he spent time with so many of us backstage, is a wonderful memory that we will hold close in our hearts. Thank you, David, for showing us so beautifully the joy of life.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued this proclamation on Hockney’s death last week:
“David Hockney was immensely creative, curious, and generous with his art, inspiring countless artists and viewers over the decades. A British transplant to Los Angeles, he soaked up the California sunshine and gave that warmth back to the world tenfold. He will be deeply missed.”
