David Hockney: Love Life at Charleston 

Love Life at Charleston, 23rd September 2023 – 1oth March 2024.

 

From the of 23rd September, Charleston presents Love Life, a fascinating exhibition delivering a series of Hockney’s early, unseen work. The Wolfson Gallery will open this exhibition where it will remain until 10th March 2024.

In 2017, prior to the opening of a retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, David Hockney painted the words ‘Love Life’ on the final wall of the show. Explaining his actions, he said: “I love my work. And I think the work has love, actually … I love life. I write it at the end of letters – ‘Love life, David Hockney.”

Charleston will offer a Hockney time capsule, abridging his early depictions of everyday life, objects, and architecture dating back to the 1960s. His profound connection with simplicity and artistic creation using pencil, coloured crayon, and pen and ink encapsulates his philosophy to love life.

His intimate portrayal of everyday life explores the experiences of humans on page, celebrating simplicity and sharing queer experiences with his audience. Whether it be a box of matches on a table or ‘Dale and Mo’ lying in Hockney’s bed in Notting Hill, Hockney amasses an artistic language that cannot be so simply translated to grand painted artworks.

The exhibition is organised by the Holburne Museum, Bath. Nathaniel Hepburn, Director and Chief Executive at Charleston says: “Made over sixty years ago, Hockney’s drawings of intimate moments still resonate with a freshness and joy. It’s wonderful to see these works at Charleston – a place where art and experimental thinking have always been placed at the centre of everyday life. Hockney’s work exemplifies these ideals, finding beauty in the ordinary moments and creating a connection to audiences and the queer experience across the generations.”

To mark the opening weekend of Love Life, Charleston is hosting artist Ian Giles’ performance ‘A Clear Comfort’ which engages with legacies of queer homemaking. Offering a rare opportunity to get inside Charleston’s house out-of-hours, this promenade performance will transport intimate audiences beyond the physical walls of Charleston and into the homes of pioneering queer artists such as filmmaker Derek Jarman’s ‘Prospect Cottage’ in Dungeness; American photographer Alice Austen’s home ‘Clear Comfort’ on Staten Island and trace the origins of House Music in gay clubs in 1970s Chicago. This event is commissioned and presented in partnership with Van Gogh House.

Opening concurrently with this exhibition is ‘Osman Yousefzada’. Osman’s practice revolves around modes of storytelling, merging autobiography with fiction and ritual. His work engages with experiences of migration, representation and belonging. The exhibition at Charleston explores a new body of textile work alongside works on paper, many of which are on public display for the first time.

 

Cover image: Ossie Wearing a Fairisle Sweater, David Hockney, 1970. Colored pencil on paper 43.18 x 35.56 cm (17 x 14 Inches) © David Hockney. Photo by Fabrice Gibert.