“David sees the world backward,” says Doug Roberts, a Los Angeles art dealer and longtime friend of David Hockney. Roberts was appearing on a panel about the artist, as part of Portland Art Museum’s (PAM) new exhibition tracing 60 years of Hockney’s work. He meant it as praise.

Hockney, whose sunny California scenes somehow simmer with loneliness, has built a career on challenging how we see. He embraces new artistic technologies, elevates everyday objects, and believes that perspective isn’t fixed in a work of art—actually, it begins with you, the viewer.

 

Lindsay is the Portland Mercury's staff writer and the former arts calendar editor for EverOut Portland and EverOut Seattle. Send arts tips and pictures of birds to lindsay@portlandmercury.com.