Professor Martin Hammer invites you to his inaugural lecture on Friday 28th March at 6pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1, University of Kent, followed by a drinks reception.
‘Stepping Westward: David Hockney in Colorado in 1965’
Abstract:
I intend to focus on a specific work, painted by Hockney in America in 1965. Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians (like Hockney’s early art in general) is typically discussed in relation to autobiographical anecdote provided by the artist, and tends not to be taken very seriously by art historians. I hope to identify and explore what kinds of thing the painting is made of, beyond paint on canvas – memories of places and of a wide range of works of art, attitudes to life in modern America from the perspective of an English outsider, and Hockney’s immersion in the contemporary novel as well as theoretical reflections on art. Painting and painter will emerge perhaps as more ‘learned’ and complex than is often recognised.
**Please RSVP to artsevents@kent.ac.uk**