Author Explores Life Of Artist David Hockney In Latest Novel
Reitzes sits down with author Catherine Cusset’s to discuss her book, “Life Of David Hockney: A Novel,” which imagines the life of Hockney at some of the artist’s most pivotal moments.
Summer Evans / WABE
“Art, like religion, shouldn’t exclude anyone. It should be universal,” writes Catherine Cusset in her new book, “Life of David Hockney: A Novel.”
The working-class art student from the north of England was successful from the very outset of his career. Hockney fell in love with the United States, settled in California and is closely associated with sunny depictions of Los Angeles. He was later known as the “painter of California.” Recently one of Hockney’s paintings sold for $90.3 million — a record auction price for a work by a living artist.
Catherine Cusset imagines Hockney’s feelings and thoughts at pivotal moments in his life. The author is on tour and will speak this evening at the Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House in Midtown.
She joined City Lights’ host Lois Reitzes in studio to discuss her new novel.
“[Hockney] became a figurative artist when everyone was abstract. He also became a militant homosexual painter in his thirties when homosexuality was still a crime in England. He moved to New York in 1961 and that was a revelation to him. He loved the United States,” Cusset said.
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