A painting by Bradford born and world famous artist David Hockney, is being displayed at Cartwright Hall art gallery as part of a major National Portrait Gallery project.
The Coming Home project sees 50 portraits of iconic individuals from the national Collection travelling to the towns and cities most closely associated with their subjects.
Hockney’s painting ‘Self-Portrait with Charlie’ is on display in the Hockney Gallery at the Bradford Council-run art gallery until 14 July 2019.
The artwork was created in his Hollywood Hills studio in 2005 and is from a series of large single and double figure paintings, all of which were completed in just a few sittings.
For this painting he worked directly onto the canvas in oils, without taking photos or making any preparatory sketches.
The piece depicts Hockney, brushes in hand painting, and sets up an exchange of gazes between the viewer, the artist, and the model who is Charlie Scheips a New York-based curator and friend of Hockney.
The National Portrait Gallery has been collecting portraits of men and women who have made a significant contribution to British life and history since 1856.
As part of Coming Home, the Gallery will be working with local museums, galleries and other venues to provide communities across the country with the opportunity to celebrate their local heroes.
Coun Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “Bradford is an incredibly creative place and it is entirely appropriate that a David Hockney self-portrait is coming to our fabulous Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, the very place where Hockney himself found inspiration as a child and a student.
“We are very proud of Hockney and his Bradford roots. He is widely regarded as Britain’s greatest living painter and his exhibitions regularly draw record-breaking crowds. Our permanent Hockney Gallery showcases an introduction to the artist, his techniques and early works showing how it all began for Hockney in Bradford and is the ideal place to showcase this exceptional painting.”
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery said: “We are delighted to lend David Hockney’s Self-Portrait with Charlie to Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in the artist’s hometown of Bradford, and a place I also used to visit as a child, as part of our exciting new Coming Home initiative. We hope that sending portraits ‘home’ in this way will foster a sense of pride and create a personal connection for local communities to a bigger national history; thus helping us to fulfil our aim of being truly a national gallery for everyone, in our role as the nation’s family album.”
The painting will be on show in the Hockney Gallery at Cartwright Hall until 14 July 2019.
