David Hockney, who has died at the age of 88, was one of Britain’s most iconic 20th-century artists – a revolutionary with a paint brush whose bright, accessible style set the tone for the Swinging London of the 1960s. As befits a contemporary of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he was a bit of a rock star: an avant-garde figure beloved by the public, a hobnobber with royalty who never forgot his Yorkshire roots.
An artist for all seasons, he also dabbled in interior and set design, which is how he ended up at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1975, where he was commissioned to create the set for a new production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. He had been hired by Glyndebourne’s director George Christie, who welcomed Hockney into the family home. Here, George’s son Gus talks about his early memories of Hockney and the artist’s long-standing relationship with Glyndebourne.
David Hockney was great fun. He was always his wry, Yorkshire, amusing, mischievous, naughty self. He dressed impeccably. He had the most wonderful suits that he always wore. He got depressed when he saw others around him not making an effort.
He first came to Glyndebourne in 1975, when he designed the iconic production of The Rake’s Progress with director John Cox. I was 11 and it made a huge impression on me back then, as it still does now. We last did it in 2023 and David and the original creative team came on stage and took a bow on opening night and the whole audience went nuts.
Hockney photographed in 1971. Gus says Hockney ‘got depressed when he saw others around him not making an effort’ to dress up (Photo: King Collection/Getty)We’d bring it out at least once a decade and dust it off. David and John have come back each time and stayed in the house. One year he came back, he made [the character of] Nick Shadow, who plays the Devil, more devilish – touched up his make-up. He loved coming back and revisiting it. It probably took him back to his days as a young man. He also loved staying in the house.
In 2010, he was just getting into his iPad drawing. He did his first iPad drawing, I believe, in a bedroom upstairs – a still life of a vase with some flowers. He always embraced new technology. He would stop anyone on the staircase – the gardener, the plumber, and go, “Look at this!” He was so enthused by this extraordinary technology.
He was so dedicated to his work – absolutely prolific. That never left him. His defiance of the doctors with his smoking was legendary. He became a bit of a bore about his smoking – he was almost doing it to put fingers up to the medical profession, just to show he could survive it. He hated people telling him what he should and shouldn’t do. He was very defiant that way. He did pretty damn well to get to the age he got to, considering the amount he smoked.
When he first came here, he was a fairly unknown artist. He’d bring various partners to come and stay. He was a life-affirming fellow that you wanted to be with.
One of Hockney’s iPad paintings, ‘A Year in Normandie’, from 2020-2021 (Photo: Esther Midgen)David took real pride in the way he looked. He always cut a dash – fantastic suits. When he was in Normandy, where he resided from 2019 to 2023, we were putting on the Rake in the autumn of 2021 – pandemic time. There was all this hoo-ha about Visas, because he was coming from Normandy.
They wouldn’t let him on the train. He was ringing up from wherever he was in France – we were trying to do everything we could to get proof he was going to go back to Normandy after he’d been here. He was getting very depressed by all the people at this particular railway station and they were all wearing tracksuits – that was getting him down more than anything. “I’m going home,” he said. “I’ve had enough of people dressed in tracksuits.”
That’s what he loved about Glyndebourne – the respect the audience had for the art he was creating. We’ve got a lovely film of him on our website, where he says: “It’s like being in heaven – walking across these beautiful lawns, and the beautiful flowers, listening to strains of Mozart floating out of the buildings.” It was a huge pleasure knowing him.
As told to Ed Power
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