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David Hockney Quotes

Photographer

David Hockney is a renowned British photographer, born on July 9, 1937. His works are known for their unique perspective and color application, which have had a profound impact on the development of photographic art.

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All Thinking Art People Ifs Drawing Painting Photography Artist Cameras Wells Looks Mean Way World Bits Draws I Can Paint Knows Said

Famous David Hockney Quotes

“People from the village come up and tease me: 'We hear you've started drawing on your telephone.' And I tell them, 'Well, no, actually, it's just that occasionally I speak on my sketch pad,'”

People Wells Speak Come Up Drawing Village Telephones Tease Pads Tease Me

Author:David Hockney

“I usually only draw myself in down periods... I suppose that's why I often draw myself looking grim. I just think, 'Let's have a look in the mirror.' When you are alone and you look in a mirror you never put on a pleasing smile. Well, you don't, do you?”

Thinking Wells Looks Periods Draws Mirrors Grim

Author:David Hockney

“With watercolour, you can't cover up the marks. There's the story of the construction of the picture, and then the picture might tell another story as well.”

Wells Stories Might Mark Construction Cover Ups

Author:David Hockney

“Being able to draw means being able to put things in believable space. People who don't draw very well can't do that.”

People Wells Mean Able Space Draws Believable

Author:David Hockney

“Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.”

Wells Teach Crafts

Author:David Hockney

“And then I went round the corner and there's a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it's not the level of Van Gogh.”

Thinking Wells Levels Higher Rounds Corners Portraits Vans Higher Level

Author:David Hockney

“But, I would always be thinking of how pictures are constructed and colour, how to use it, I mean you're using it for constructing, makes you think about it, the place did as well.”

Thinking Wells Mean Use Colour Make You Think

Author:David Hockney

“I made a photograph of a garden in Kyoto, the Zen garden, which is a rectangle. But a photograph taken from any one point will not show, well it shows a rectangle, but not with ninety degree angles.”

Wells Made Shows Taken Degrees Garden Photograph Angle Ninety Kyoto Rectangles

Author:David Hockney

“I think we seem to remember things in still pictures. I never gave up on painting. When they said painting was dead, I just thought, Well, that's all about photography, and photography's not that interesting, and it's changing anyway.”

Thinking Wells Said Stills Seems Remember Interesting Painting Photography They Said Gave Up

Author:David Hockney

“Time is the great mystery anyway. And it's still the great mystery in the moving picture as well.”

Wells Stills Moving Mystery

Author:David Hockney

“We don't all see the same way at all. Even if I'm sitting looking at you, there is always the memory of you as well. And a memory is now. So someone who's never met you before is seeing a different person. That's bound to be the case. We all see something different. I assume most people don't look very hard at anything.”

People Ifs Way Wells Looks Persons Different Hard Memories Cases Seeing Mets Sitting Assuming Bounds

Author:David Hockney

“On the 31st of October 2011 year, I had a mini-stroke. I couldn't finish my sentences. So I went to the doctor. It was a tiny one. The speech came back in a month or so. I did notice I could draw even better, I felt. I was concentrating more. And I wasn't talking much, but I was drawing. I said, "Well, I don't have to talk much."”

Years Wells Said Felt Talking Months Speech Draws Doctors Sentences Drawing Tiny Strokes October Concentrating Talking Much

Author:David Hockney

“I feel 30. [Publo] Picasso said he always felt 30. Well, I do.”

Feels Wells Said Felt

Author:David Hockney

“...all along I've had an ambivalent relationship to photography - but as to whether I thought it an art form, or a craft, or a technique, well, I've always been taken with Henry Geldzahler's answer to that question when he said, I thought it was a hobby.”

Wells Art Said Form Answers Taken Photography Technique Crafts Hobbies Ambivalent

Book:True to life: twenty-five years of conversations with David Hockney

Source: True to life: twenty-five years of conversations with David Hockney

“I have got an iPad, what a joy! Van Gogh would have loved it, and he could have written his letters on it as well.”

Wells Joy Written Letters Vans Ipads

Author:David Hockney

“Water in swimming pools changes its look more than in any other form its colour can be man-made and its dancing rhythms reflect not only the sky but, because of its transparency, the depth of the water as well. If the water surface is almost still and there is a strong sun, then dancing lines with the colours of the spectrum appear everywhere.”

Ifs Men Wells Looks Made Stills Form Strong Water Lines Sun Sky Dancing Depth Surface Rhythm Colour Swimming Pool Spectrum Transparency Swimming Pool

Book:Travels with Pen, Pencil and Ink

Source: Travels with Pen, Pencil and Ink

“Well, in Bradford I could say I was brought up in Bradford and Hollywood.”

Wells Hollywood Bradford

Author:David Hockney

About the Author

Born: July 9, 1937
Known for: Photographer
Quotes: 227

Books & Sources

David HockneyRelated source material

Hockney on photography: conversations with Paul JoyceRelated source material

True to life: twenty-five years of conversations with David HockneyRelated source material

David Hockney photographsRelated source material

Art & DesignRelated source material

David Hockney: a retrospectiveRelated source material

David Hockney: grafiekRelated source material

Portrait of David HockneyRelated source material

Travels with Pen, Pencil and InkRelated source material

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