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Hockney deserves our respect?
By Michael Borwn
Feb 6, 2012 - 9:52:52 AM
Feb 6, 2012 - 9:52:52 AM
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His review totally ignores the important point that Davids work did much to encourage a healthy Californian attitude towards Gay equality at a time when the modern Gay liberation movement was doing much to promote equality.
His paintings are very important in this context as a historical record of the liberation he achieved from Pop art and the Californian lifestyle which gives us the title A Bigger Splash.
A Bigger Splash of colour, male beauty and homo erotocism, which was a total liberation in art terms at the time and is certainly so today with so much pride work being based round the pool and the erotic beauty of the male body.
Even if this was alienating as the film suggests, Hockney is a great pioneer and important artist.
Michael Brown
Michael Hootman responds:
I'd agree with much of what Michael Brown says:
Hockney is an important artist whose work did much to promote gay equality. However, I wasn't reviewing the artist, or his contribution to society, but a film made about him.
To give a counter example: Tim Burton's Ed Wood, a biopic about the man usually considered the world's worst director, is a truly great film. It has a near-perfect script, some of Hollywood's finest character acting and is one of the most weirdly feel-good films ever made.
If you accept you can make a great film about a terrible artist, I think it stands to reason you can make a lousy film about a great artist.
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6-Feb-2012
Hockney deserves our respect?
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