Prince Charles and Hockney on drawing
November 28 2014
Picture: Guardian
Prince Charles has persuaded his mum to grant the moniker ‘Royal’ to the drawing school he established some years ago. More details here.
For a reminder of why the Prince’s drawing school is a Good Thing, here’s a recent quote from David Hockney, from a piece in The Spectator by Martin Gayford:
He laments the neglect of drawing in recent art education. ‘People had been drawing for 40,000 years, and they gave it up in 1975. It’s almost funny. But they couldn’t give it up really. You can’t: it’s always back to the drawing board!’ By that, he means that any new way of seeing the world will have to be produced by the human eye, heart and hand, working together. And this applies as much to new types of photographic imagery as it does to paintings.
Such a view is, for me, one of the reasons Hockney will endure as one of the great artists of our age. I’m always surprised that, in financial terms, his work is relatively inexpensive, compared to some of the guff that sells for millions. That said, I’ve long wanted to own a Hockney drawing, and they’re way too pricey for me…
