Nigel Ip

Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look was a charming little display highlighting David Hockney’s personal connection to Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ and the National Gallery as a whole. The painter referenced the picture in two large paintings, My Parents and Looking at Pictures on a Screen, both of which flanked the altarpiece like the side panels of a triptych. Indeed, Piero’s picture was once originally part of such an arrangement from the 1460s onwards.

This all started when the Gallery began a series of Artist’s Eye exhibitions in 1977, in which artists were invited to curate a display using the Gallery’s pictures alongside a few of their own works. Hockney’s 1981 show used Looking at Pictures on a Screen to explore the power of images – both original and reproduced – and the pleasure that could be derived from careful observation.

Art historians know this sentiment all too well; nothing is better than seeing the object first-hand in order to take in their size and scale, surface texture, colours, and visual effects caused by various lighting conditions. Yet, here we find the critic and curator Henry Geldzahler looking intently at reproductions of the Gallery’s pictures taped to a screen.

Piero’s Baptism featured in Hockney’s exhibition three times: in the original, reproduced in paint in Hockney’s picture, and as a photographic reproduction in the poster emulating Hockney’s painting. The stillness of Piero’s picture clearly had a long-lasting effect on Hockney’s style of composition for portraits in the coming years.

The importance of looking at pictures in the flesh is well-illustrated in Hockney’s letter – dated 5th February 1980 – to the Gallery’s then-Director, Michael Levey, expressing his desire to copy a Van Gogh painting:

‘Would it be possible to do it in the basement. I’m sure I could do it in 2 of three days. With Van Gogh you can actually see how he did the painting.’

Crucially, he concludes that:

‘copying is a marvellous way to learn […] I recommend it to young students of painting now. I even think museums should encourage it in artists. They do have some responsibilities to artists working now, which sometimes they seem to forget.’

I empathise deeply with Hockney’s message as my pre-university journey towards understanding art history relied solely on sketching pictures I had seen in exhibitions over four years, which I would attend during my school breaks. I compiled all those sketches in an album and brought it to my interview at the University of Kent; it was the only physical proof I had demonstrating I had any passion in art.

This was a nice, free exhibition that brought back a lot of memories for me, including the reasons why I’m so invested in giving back to this art-loving community that gave me those early opportunities to be inspired and find purpose as a confused teenager with nothing but exams to look forward to. Ultimately, it seemed heartfelt and genuine, and that’s a great premise for these dialogue-driven shows that can often, unfortunately, seem rather forced.

Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look (8 August – 27 October 2024) was at the National Gallery, London, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/