Hockney


Hockney

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This programme contains some strong language

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Wait a minute, let me check - just let me turn the brush. There.

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Good.

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David came to the college with this pinstripe suit,

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and a high starch collar and a very thin little tie,

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and this pudding bowl haircut.

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And I said to myself, "My God, look at the state of this fella!"

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I said, "He's like a Russian peasant. A right Boris."

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You know those crinkly chippers?

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You see, he had a crinkly chipper,

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when chips used to be straight.

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He always had bloody theories about everything, you know?

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"Here, well, there's more surface area. It makes a better chip."

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He had a need to have a guiding theory.

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When he decided he'd hit on the right one,

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it was like someone who's suddenly seen the light in a new religion.

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And you'd tend to dread meeting him and being subjected to it again.

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It was always easy to get him on the subject of cigarettes.

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I asked him what he thought about this billboard,

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over on Santa Monica Boulevard.

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Right away, he says,

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"Well, I should rent the billboard across the street...

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"..that would tell the number of people who died of other causes."

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I think he was a bit in love with me for a while. I do think that's true.

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I remember wearing this suit in San Francisco

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and going up to Nob Hill, which is a very steep slope,

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and he said, "Celia,

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"those trousers from the back,

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"I don't think you look your best in those."

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And I never wore them again.

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We had this polar bear white carpet,

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and he was doing some ink drawings on the floor,

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and he got a spot of ink on the carpet,

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and my father got hysterical.

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I said, "Dad, we should have him sign it.

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"It'll be worth millions in a couple of years."

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We go under the stairs,

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a little cupboard to hide under the stairs.

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When the bomb drops on the street,

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my mother screamed.

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If she screams, you scream.

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I mean, you're very frightened if your mother's frightened.

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So, it's something I've always remembered and, actually,

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so had all my brothers and sister.

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It's the first...

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..first memory I have, yeah.

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I was born in 1937,

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and I do remember the end of the Second World War.

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I was brought up with rationing.

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They didn't end rationing till I was 16 years old,

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so, you couldn't just go and buy a bar of chocolate.

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You could only buy sweets Saturday morning

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when you got your pocket money.

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You would be given it at nine o'clock

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and the sweets had gone by 9.15.

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You'd bought them and eaten them and that was it,

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and you'd have to wait till another Saturday.

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I mean, I was brought up in austerity like that.

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On the other hand, we didn't feel poor.

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Life was interesting, you know?

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I mean, you're a kid, so life is interesting

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whether you have much money or not.

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It's always interesting to children, in that way. It should be, anyway.

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And it was to my father.

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I mean, he...

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he wasn't a very sophisticated man, in many ways.

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I mean, he was a bit puritanical for me.

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But he had a heart. I mean, he cared about people,

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and felt there should be justice in the world.

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I mean, he was political that way.

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-FROM A RECORDING:

-The one thing I loved, my father could paint

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the line on a crossbar of a bicycle

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using a special long brush.

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He'd rest your finger on the top,

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and then you do it without a ruler, you see?

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Like a sign writer would.

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But to watch it done without a ruler

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was very thrilling, I thought.

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Incredible that you could make a straight line like that,

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just with your eye.

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I mean, it's like watching Michelangelo draw a circle.

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Why are you popular?

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What is it, do you think, in your work that goes straight through

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to the understanding and feelings of a large number of people?

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Well...

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-..I'm not that sure.

-Go on, try.

-Of course.

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I am interested in ways of looking,

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and trying to think of it in simple ways.

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If you can communicate that,

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of course, people will respond.

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Everybody does look,

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it's just a question of how hard they're willing to look, isn't it?

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We were at a restaurant and somehow the subject came up

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of David's failings and faults.

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Henry took the napkin and wrote,

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just like that, as fast as you please.

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It's so funny, I picked it up and I've saved it ever since.

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It started out, "stubborn",

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then "hard of hearing" was the next one.

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"Generous to a fault",

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"emotional in the guise of reason".

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And "often overhardy".

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And he's written in parenthesis, "walking and bathing".

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And the other one is, which he's written is,

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"unintentionally rude", and he's underlined "unintentionally" twice.

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I think it's a really good description of David.

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I've saved it for ever.

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One of the things that my father taught me

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was not to worry too much what the neighbours think.

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Well...

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that's aristocratic, actually, not working class.

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That's aristocratic.

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I mean, "Fuck you, I don't care what the neighbours think."

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And my mother would have cared,

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but Kenneth told me that,

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"Don't you worry too much what the neighbours think."

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And I always thought, I took that lesson, actually, yeah.

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I noticed it.

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When he was at Bradford Art School, he was in an evening class,

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life drawing, and there was a guy,

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and bit of a sort rocker or something,

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and he had an art student girlfriend,

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probably with that sort of witch-type mascara

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that was about then. And they were real art students,

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and there was the schoolboy, you see, intensely drawing.

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And he said this guy was just like this on his thing,

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and sort of putting his feet up on the donkey, you know, and all this,

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and just spent two hours taking the piss out of Hockney

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for being so earnest and just drawing.

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And the girlfriend was laughing and the model was laughing.

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And I said, "What did you do?"

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He just said, "Well..." He said,

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"Well, I just thought, 'Well, I'll fucking show them!'"

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And he had revealed the inner David, you know?

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Willpower.

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Nobody was there when I arrived at the Royal College

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and I just sort of got a cubicle they appointed me

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and I laid out my stuff

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and then suddenly this very strange-looking guy walks in

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and doesn't say a word,

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just starts setting up in the cubicle next to me.

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Then Derek Boshier came in

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and took up the cubicle on the other side,

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so there was Derek on my left, and David on my right,

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and me in the middle, and we became quite friendly after a few weeks.

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He was living in a little hut in Earls Court,

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and I went there once or twice, but it was not very large.

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It barely fit the two of us in there.

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ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC

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London in the '60s was becoming very hip, very different,

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also very anti-Establishment.

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The atmosphere that I sensed in the cubicles that were surrounding me

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was of experimentation.

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They wanted to experiment

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to find something different than what they knew

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and they weren't even sure what that was going to be.

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I think they were interested in America, definitely,

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but, strangely enough, I think it was the Abstract Expressionist painters

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and the anti-traditionalism of those artists

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that really intrigued the British painters.

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The main thing then was abstraction.

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The Abstract Expressionists were very big,

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and so, by the end of my second year,

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I went to New York.

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Somebody stopped me in the street

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and said they had this ticket for New York.

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And it cost £40.

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And all I had to give them was £10 now

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and I could have it if I gave the £30 later.

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I thought it cost a £1,000 to go to America.

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I mean, I'd never thought of going to America,

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so, erm,

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I said OK.

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I only had about £12,

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but I thought, "Well, I'll get the money somehow."

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I think almost the next day

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this letter came

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with a cheque for £100.

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I'd won a prize.

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And then I started selling pictures

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for £10, £12, £15.

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In the end,

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I went to America with about 350.

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And that was to last me for two months.

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JET PLANE ENGINES WHINE

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I had a great time in New York then.

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I thought New York was the place to be.

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That was it, I thought.

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I mean, it ran 24 hours a day then, absolutely did.

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SIREN WAILS

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ADVERT: '..whipped cream on your head,

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'but this is Lady Clairol Whipped Creme.

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'It makes every bleach I've ever used old-fashioned.'

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'It's the fabulous new way to be blonde, beautifully.

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'Lady Clairol hair lightener whips instantly, never runs or drips...'

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I was living in my parents' home in Long Island in Long Beach.

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Friends of mine, and David, were all in my house one evening

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watching television

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and this ad came on.

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I don't even remember what we were watching,

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but this ad came on for Clairol and saying, you know,

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"Everybody should go blonde, because blondes have more fun."

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They all looked at it and they said, "Wow. That sounds good."

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And they rushed out and bought Clairol hair dye,

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and they were all sitting in my parents' living room

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dying their hair.

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My father walked in and almost had a heart attack.

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"What the hell is going on here?!"

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But that's where David decided

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he was going to be blond for the rest of his life.

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Is he still blond?

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Lovely, aren't they?

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You can drop 'em on a stone floor and pick 'em up again...

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in pieces.

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Give me eight and six for the half a dozen, darling.

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Eight shillings, half a dozen.

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Right...

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He was always drawing, always, as long as I can ever remember.

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When he had little stubby fingers, he'd be drawing something.

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And he never stopped.

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And he didn't have paper like you have today,

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but you've got the edge of notebooks and things or...

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anything where there was a space. A bus ticket, even.

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So if he were on a bus, he'd have a pencil in his hand

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probably drawing other passengers, things like that.

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SIZZLING

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SEWING MACHINE CLICKS

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The weight. Oh, yeah. Wow, the weight.

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When you think now, you can get it on Kindle, can't you?

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SHE LAUGHS

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Yeah.

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Ah, yes, this is the sort of thing.

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He would have been all excited

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about who's done these

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and why have they done them, and, I mean, brilliant,

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especially when you go back with the history, as well.

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So, yes, this would have influenced him.

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You see, this was the only way you could see the world, wasn't it?

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I mean, there was Cartwright Hall in Bradford with some pictures.

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By looking at pictures,

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he would realise, "I can do what I like,"

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once you've seen these, can't you?

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And it would give him the freedom to be an artist

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and be an artist who painted exactly what he wanted to paint,

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what he needed to paint.

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He'd be looking at these

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and looking at the techniques and why they did...

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He'd see it totally with his eye,

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which would be quite different to what the rest of us would see.

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Badges.

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"Good health is worth more than a fortune."

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-Give me one, will you?

-Put those in the car.

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-You're going to take 'em?

-Yep.

-Oh, are ya?

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Do you remember the hens,

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the hens on the field up here before they built the houses?

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-Oh, you'd only be ever so young.

-Oh, yes. On, er...

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Well, I have that somewhere.

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It's framed.

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Did you see anything, Margaret?

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No, I can't find those cuff links.

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'We used to live in Steadman Terrace during the war.'

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It was a small house and closed in.

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It was claustrophobic, actually, yes,

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and there were five of us.

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All right, we were only small, so that didn't matter too much.

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And it was at the top of a hill, and you couldn't...

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If it was dark, you couldn't see a thing anywhere.

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There was a lot of darkness from that house in my memory,

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so probably the same with David.

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But I think the claustrophobia could have been a bit of emotional

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as well as space-wise.

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I know he always says he likes space.

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But you do need space from people as well, don't you?

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In fact, that is what space is, isn't it, actually?

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What else is space?

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Being alone.

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MUSIC: L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole

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# L is for the way you look at me

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# O is for the only one I see

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# V is very, very extraordinary... #

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Within one week of coming here, I'd never driven before,

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I'd got a driving licence, bought a car, got a studio

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and I thought, "This is the place."

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It's got all the energy of the United States

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with the Mediterranean thrown in,

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which I think is a wonderful combination.

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CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

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David took some snapshots,

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he took Polaroids, of me standing in front of the bar room,

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and I was dusting some of the heads,

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cos I had a lot of animal heads.

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My first husband was a great white hunter.

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GUNSHOT

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And David only took about three black and white Polaroids.

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I said, "Oh, David, how can you work from black and white?"

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"Oh," he said, "I can only work from black and white photographs,

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"because the colour of photography is never the same as real life."

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Anyway, so I took the pictures

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and I said, "There's only one thing you could call this painting,

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"since I'm dusting.

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"It's called Beverly Hills Housewife."

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SPRINKLERS SWISH

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Some people will say, "Well, LA is a good place to hide."

0:23:130:23:17

You can calve out a private life here for yourself, if you wish,

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and a lot of people do that.

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Because of the kind of set-up of the city and everything,

0:23:250:23:28

people don't walk here,

0:23:280:23:30

they take cars.

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And David's had this place here for many years,

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but he wasn't part of a community like Venice or Downtown LA.

0:23:350:23:40

But he just managed to get around, all over the city.

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I know that he would like to go out on rides,

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you know, driving way out in the country,

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and I think he's done that several times, too.

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-I'll be there.

-OVER PHONE: 'OK. Yeah, a guy came.

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'He was asking about you earlier.

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'He may try to reach you...'

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-All right, love.

-'See you later.'

-Bye.

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-TV:

-'My daddy promised me a horse all for myself

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'when I got here from back east.

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'He said, "A boy needs a horse to love and if it's the right boy,

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'"the horse will learn to love him, too."'

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WESTERN MUSIC

0:24:240:24:27

-There he is.

-Boy, he's a beauty.

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No wonder he's the king of the wild herd.

0:24:410:24:43

I've just gotta get him today.

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That's for sure, Bob. We can't disappoint that kid of yours.

0:24:450:24:48

He's coming in on the 4.59...

0:24:480:24:49

'When I arrived here, somebody said,

0:24:490:24:52

'"Well, why have you come to this cultural desert?"

0:24:520:24:55

'Well, I didn't think it was a cultural desert,

0:24:550:24:58

'because I knew Hollywood was here.'

0:24:580:25:00

Come on, boys. Come on.

0:25:000:25:02

My father loved the cinema.

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So did we as kids and, remember,

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I'm about the last generation brought up without television.

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I was 18 years old when we first got television,

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so my childhood was radio and things.

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But we loved the pictures.

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They were always called "the pictures".

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Not "the movies", not "the cinema", "the pictures".

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"Can we go to the pictures?"

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They had a powerful effect on me, you know.

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We used to go in the side entrance and, of course,

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there was a lavatory down there with an exit

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and kids used to go and open it.

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Little kids'd run in free, you know, doing that.

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I used to tell 'em,

0:25:400:25:41

"If you walk in backwards, they'll think you're coming out."

0:25:410:25:44

And I would point this out, though.

0:25:440:25:47

Probably because you were sitting near the front,

0:25:470:25:51

the edges of the screen seemed unimportant.

0:25:510:25:55

They were miles away, you thought they were absolutely miles away.

0:25:550:25:59

Whereas now I'm very, very aware of the edges of the screen

0:25:590:26:03

often making a pokey picture.

0:26:030:26:06

But at that time, I never thought any picture was pokey,

0:26:060:26:10

because it was offering you another world from dingy Bradford.

0:26:100:26:15

Remember, you're walking through dingy streets

0:26:150:26:17

to a little local cinema and when you come out,

0:26:170:26:21

you've been all over, you've been in the French Revolution or somewhere,

0:26:210:26:26

so you come out with your imagination working.

0:26:260:26:29

It was pictures, pictures, pictures!

0:26:290:26:31

GUNSHOTS

0:26:310:26:33

I've always said, in a way, I was brought up

0:26:430:26:46

in Hollywood and Bradford,

0:26:460:26:48

because most of the films we saw were American when I think of it.

0:26:480:26:52

I went to the cinema a lot and we'd go home on the bus.

0:27:030:27:07

I'd always go upstairs to the front of the bus.

0:27:090:27:12

I always travelled upstairs on the bus,

0:27:140:27:16

always on the front seat,

0:27:160:27:19

so you could see more.

0:27:190:27:21

I always wanted to SEE more.

0:27:210:27:23

I, erm, was coming back from New York and I'd bought,

0:27:410:27:45

in New York, some nudist magazines, some male nudist magazines,

0:27:450:27:52

and at the airport, the Customs man, who was about 22 years old,

0:27:520:27:57

opened the bag and they sorted out the magazines.

0:27:570:28:00

If they were completely nude, he put them on one side

0:28:000:28:03

and if they were not quite nude, he put them on another side

0:28:030:28:06

and then they kept the nude magazines.

0:28:060:28:08

I protested and said, "Oh, come on, don't be silly.

0:28:080:28:11

"Just give me them back," and this, that and the other

0:28:110:28:15

and they took them away,

0:28:150:28:17

and I kept phoning up the Customs office in the city

0:28:170:28:22

and I kept speaking to a man, I don't know what his name was,

0:28:220:28:25

Mr Hittet, Hillet or something.

0:28:250:28:27

He said, "Oh, they are definitely pornographic."

0:28:270:28:30

He'd looked through and in one of the photographs,

0:28:300:28:32

the boys had painted their genitals with psychedelic colours.

0:28:320:28:36

And I just didn't... I just didn't know what to say to somebody

0:28:360:28:40

who didn't think that was amusing or funny.

0:28:400:28:43

Then, erm...

0:28:430:28:44

..in the end, I had to get a lawyer

0:28:450:28:47

and I showed him magazines of a similar kind,

0:28:470:28:50

and the moment the lawyer wrote the letter to them,

0:28:500:28:53

they immediately came back.

0:28:530:28:54

A man appeared on the doorstep in a peaked cap

0:28:540:28:57

with a big envelope marked "On Her Majesty's Service"

0:28:570:29:00

and said, "You know what these are," and handed them in.

0:29:000:29:02

David became particularly intrigued at the Royal College of Art

0:29:230:29:28

because I had a lot of magazines like American Model Guild

0:29:280:29:33

and Physique Pictorial stuck up in my cubicle,

0:29:330:29:37

and this fascinated him, of course.

0:29:370:29:40

I was very out already in New York,

0:29:400:29:42

despite the fact that it was the '60s

0:29:420:29:45

and I had a lot of trouble being out

0:29:450:29:47

and I'd been beaten up several times by, you know,

0:29:470:29:49

anti-gay homophobes, but I just didn't care.

0:29:490:29:54

I thought, "Well, you know, England is probably OK,

0:29:540:29:56

"nobody cares there about this sort of stuff."

0:29:560:30:00

And he was intrigued to meet somebody who was so out,

0:30:000:30:04

because I don't think he knew anybody at that point

0:30:040:30:07

who was quite out and so we became very close friends.

0:30:070:30:11

A couple of times I've shared a bed with Hockney,

0:30:430:30:46

and once was I was stuck for somewhere to kip.

0:30:460:30:49

Has anyone ever mentioned his five-foot tall

0:30:490:30:51

turquoise teddy bear that he had?

0:30:510:30:54

HE LAUGHS

0:30:540:30:55

This fucking great teddy bear from here to the wall.

0:30:550:30:59

With big eyes, it had, and it was turquoise sort of fluff.

0:30:590:31:03

So this went down the middle of the bed, you see,

0:31:030:31:06

between sort of, like, straights and gays,

0:31:060:31:08

if you know what I mean.

0:31:080:31:10

I was this side, you see, and this fucking great teddy bear...

0:31:100:31:14

You couldn't even see David, and then the next morning,

0:31:140:31:17

we both woke up

0:31:170:31:19

and David sort of does this sit-up in bed

0:31:190:31:21

above this turquoise teddy bear.

0:31:210:31:23

No glasses, you see, and he sort of goes,

0:31:230:31:25

he sort of goes like this, you know.

0:31:250:31:27

He sort of goes...

0:31:270:31:28

-IN YORKSHIRE ACCENT:

-"Hello!"

0:31:280:31:30

The paintings all related, whether superficially or intensely,

0:31:420:31:47

on his life and his trying to deal with his homosexuality

0:31:470:31:51

and trying to deal with his fantasies

0:31:510:31:54

and trying to deal with the issues of a sexual identity.

0:31:540:31:59

He used wit to play with these identities.

0:31:590:32:02

He was really like a little high-school girl about it, really.

0:32:120:32:16

I mean, it was all fantasy and some sort of cutesy stuff.

0:32:160:32:23

I mean, like his fantasies about...

0:32:230:32:26

Who was that rock singer?

0:32:260:32:28

..Cliff Richard.

0:32:280:32:29

I don't think he had had sex

0:32:360:32:38

at any point yet with a man,

0:32:380:32:40

but I think he certainly fantasised a lot about it.

0:32:400:32:43

With David, it was probably something about a way to get out

0:32:490:32:53

something about himself,

0:32:530:32:55

but I don't know if that was the core of the painting,

0:32:550:32:58

because, you know, it's not just pictures of men fucking.

0:32:580:33:02

There's something much more in there.

0:33:020:33:04

And homosexuality, it's sort of a witty side issue.

0:33:040:33:08

Even if it seems to be the subject of the painting,

0:33:080:33:11

it's not the subject of the painting.

0:33:110:33:13

If anything, the homosexual elements in his paintings, for me,

0:33:140:33:19

were points to roam into the painting and see other things

0:33:190:33:23

and give clues to maybe parts of the painting,

0:33:230:33:26

but they weren't the painting.

0:33:260:33:28

MUSIC: L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole

0:33:400:33:42

# L is for the way you look at me

0:33:420:33:48

# O is for the only one I see

0:33:480:33:54

# V is very, very extraordinary

0:33:540:34:00

# E is even more than anyone that you adore

0:34:000:34:06

# Can love... #

0:34:060:34:07

When I went to Los Angeles, it was really...

0:34:070:34:10

..three times better than I thought it would be.

0:34:120:34:15

# ..just a game for two... #

0:34:150:34:17

I thought, "Well, this is it. Hollywood is near here."

0:34:170:34:21

And I'd just read an American novel called City Of Night by John Rechy,

0:34:210:34:27

which has accounts of kind of lowlife in American cities,

0:34:270:34:31

and I thought it was all wonderful and colourful and everything.

0:34:310:34:35

But, erm, I wanted to get up to Hollywood

0:34:350:34:39

and see what it was all like

0:34:390:34:40

and see the hustlers and the sea and everything.

0:34:400:34:43

And I bought a bicycle to go there,

0:34:430:34:46

because I didn't know how to get there,

0:34:460:34:49

and, of course, it's about 16 miles from Santa Monica.

0:34:490:34:51

HORN BLARES

0:34:510:34:54

"Later, I would think of America as one vast city of night

0:35:010:35:05

"stretching gaudily from Times Square to Hollywood Boulevard,

0:35:050:35:08

"jukebox winking, rock and roll moaning,

0:35:080:35:12

"America at night fusing its dark cities

0:35:120:35:15

"into the unmistakable shape of loneliness.

0:35:150:35:19

"Remember Pershing Square and the apathetic palm trees,

0:35:190:35:23

"one-night sex and cigarette smoke

0:35:230:35:26

"and rooms squashed in by loneliness.

0:35:260:35:31

"And I would remember lives lived out darkly

0:35:310:35:35

"in that vast city of night,

0:35:350:35:37

"from all-night movies to Beverly Hills mansions."

0:35:370:35:42

THUNDER RUMBLES

0:35:510:35:54

I got there and realised there was nobody in Pershing Square.

0:36:010:36:05

It had all altered, this empty thing, big palm trees.

0:36:050:36:10

I did find a bar later, but it was then I realised,

0:36:100:36:17

"Well, I need a car." You just need a car.

0:36:170:36:19

A bicycle won't do, I mean...

0:36:190:36:21

So I gave the bicycle away and bought a car.

0:36:210:36:24

I used to work on a morning,

0:36:320:36:34

and then, in the afternoon, it got very hot and sunny,

0:36:340:36:37

so I'd go and lie on the beach.

0:36:370:36:39

And then, I'd work again in the evening.

0:36:430:36:45

And I'd maybe work until about 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock.

0:36:460:36:51

Then I'd go for a drink, you see.

0:36:510:36:53

In California, the bars don't close until two,

0:36:540:36:58

which seems to me, in a way, the ideal hour.

0:36:580:37:02

If you're going to close them at all, it's the ideal hour,

0:37:020:37:05

because, in a way, it's not too late

0:37:050:37:08

and you can make up your mind about things, I suppose,

0:37:080:37:10

you see, at two o'clock.

0:37:100:37:12

Four o'clock is a bit late, really.

0:37:120:37:14

You can go in a bar and meet the equivalent of a plumber,

0:37:180:37:21

from Brooklyn, could be sat at the next stool,

0:37:210:37:25

and some other guy...

0:37:250:37:26

..you know, a movie maker from Hollywood could be sat at the...

0:37:280:37:32

..on the next stool.

0:37:330:37:34

I mean, that can happen. In London, you can't do this.

0:37:340:37:37

Los Angeles to David meant surfers.

0:37:450:37:50

And there were a lot of boys around.

0:37:520:37:54

And, uh...

0:37:540:37:55

And all that was, I think, very...

0:37:560:37:59

..erotic and beautiful to David, and he depicted it.

0:38:010:38:05

It was 1964 and Chris Isherwood phoned

0:38:300:38:34

and said that a young English artist had phoned him

0:38:340:38:40

who was here in Santa Monica

0:38:400:38:42

and could he come by and visit Chris on an afternoon?

0:38:420:38:47

Chris said, "Of course."

0:38:470:38:51

David Hockney arrived, very dyed blond,

0:38:510:38:55

and my memory was in a gold jacket!

0:38:550:38:58

Chris was a distinguished writer

0:39:030:39:06

and I suppose the most famous British queer living in, er, LA,

0:39:060:39:12

and, erm, yes, er, David would have known about him

0:39:120:39:15

and would have read his books, too.

0:39:150:39:17

We'd already been together 15 years,

0:39:210:39:25

and at that time, that was considered phenomenal.

0:39:250:39:29

Two men living together and 30 years difference between them,

0:39:290:39:33

and, er, they haven't, er, shot one another or,

0:39:330:39:38

er, at least, er, split up.

0:39:380:39:42

Er, er, er, yeah.

0:39:420:39:44

He took a lot of photographs and even did some preliminary drawings.

0:39:470:39:53

Chris, he got that figure in the painting right away,

0:39:550:39:59

and you can tell from looking at the painting, it's very freshly painted.

0:39:590:40:04

It was a really fresh version

0:40:050:40:08

and it was good, I kept it, and, of course,

0:40:080:40:12

he had the, er, photographs to remind him.

0:40:120:40:16

The painting of me

0:40:170:40:19

is much heavier technique, if you look closely.

0:40:190:40:23

He had a lot of trouble with me.

0:40:230:40:25

I think it may have given David the idea

0:40:270:40:31

of finding a partner for himself,

0:40:310:40:33

since it seemed to work well for Chris and me.

0:40:330:40:37

David met a student at UCLA during the summer, Peter Schlesinger,

0:40:450:40:50

and he liked Peter very much.

0:40:500:40:52

I believe Peter was what David was somehow looking for.

0:40:520:40:56

But, er, he called once and he was taking, erm,

0:40:560:41:00

this young student of his from Tarzana in the Valley...

0:41:000:41:06

There's a place called Tarzana where...

0:41:060:41:08

..where...Burroughs...

0:41:110:41:14

Burroughs lived in Tarzana and created Tarzan.

0:41:140:41:18

Edgar Rice Burroughs created it in the Valley

0:41:180:41:21

and so, it's called Tarzana.

0:41:210:41:24

And, er, and er, David did a now famous painting of Peter

0:41:240:41:29

which is called The Room Tarzana.

0:41:290:41:32

DON BACHARDY: He was a very attractive young man,

0:41:380:41:41

and quite beautiful and, er,

0:41:410:41:42

yes, I think David was enchanted by him.

0:41:420:41:46

Neither had ever lived in a romantic relationship with a partner

0:41:490:41:54

and that made it a lot of fun to be around them.

0:41:540:41:57

My first encounter was with a picture,

0:42:140:42:16

not with David as a person.

0:42:160:42:18

I was captured by Doll Boy,

0:42:220:42:24

as a picture that seemed to me original

0:42:240:42:27

and "gay" in the old sense of the word

0:42:270:42:29

and, er...rule-breaking...

0:42:290:42:33

and witty.

0:42:330:42:34

I particularly liked that painting and, at that time,

0:42:340:42:38

had sufficient money to buy it outright

0:42:380:42:41

and then wanted to meet David.

0:42:410:42:42

David acquired fans

0:42:480:42:50

with enormous facility.

0:42:500:42:54

Cecil Beaton had already bought

0:42:540:42:56

a picture on one of his visits to the Royal College.

0:42:560:42:58

It was a time when Snowdon was making photographs for a book

0:43:020:43:06

called Private View, and people saw the potential in David

0:43:060:43:10

as someone that you could write a lot about.

0:43:100:43:13

I had great ambition at the time.

0:43:140:43:16

I wanted to show what I thought of as the greatest art.

0:43:160:43:20

I'd formulated a pretty strong idea of what I liked most

0:43:200:43:23

and it was almost entirely American Abstract colour field painting.

0:43:230:43:28

But, of course, in England, I wanted to represent

0:43:280:43:31

what I thought was the best in English painting,

0:43:310:43:33

whether it, it fitted in with all of the American taste or not.

0:43:330:43:37

And Hockney was the only figurative artist that I found interesting,

0:43:370:43:41

exciting, that I wanted to be the defender of.

0:43:410:43:44

You could say David was the only figurative artist

0:43:500:43:53

in a deadly serious Abstract place, but, in fact,

0:43:530:43:56

the influence of the ones on the other were quite strong.

0:43:560:43:59

I mean, a number of his pictures were painted

0:43:590:44:02

thinking about colour field painting, you know.

0:44:020:44:05

He'd already

0:44:100:44:11

pretty rapidly became a blond,

0:44:110:44:15

a flamboyant dresser...

0:44:150:44:17

..a maker of public statements, I mean,

0:44:180:44:21

the sort of person that draws the attention of journalists.

0:44:210:44:23

And it was at the very moment when...

0:44:230:44:27

when the eye of the press and the taste-makers

0:44:270:44:30

was on the British art world and fashion world.

0:44:300:44:34

And David stood out as one of the banner carriers

0:44:340:44:39

for the new approach to art, life and, in fact,

0:44:390:44:42

the emerging openness of gay life.

0:44:420:44:45

David always had a sense of humour.

0:44:540:44:56

For instance, when Tony Snowdon said, "Come round and have

0:44:560:44:59

"a look at Kensington Palace," when he was married to Princess Margaret.

0:44:590:45:02

Tony used to take great delight in those days

0:45:020:45:05

showing you the bathroom with the M and the coronet

0:45:050:45:07

on top of a lavatory seat, and saying,

0:45:070:45:09

"You can have a pee in," you know, "Margaret's lav, if you like."

0:45:090:45:13

And then, he asked David to sign the visitor's book and David said,

0:45:130:45:16

"No, no," he said, "I'm not going to sign that.

0:45:160:45:18

"I don't want my name in there, come the revolution!"

0:45:180:45:21

In 1962, I'd been at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

0:45:290:45:35

When it was over, I thought I'd come in the National Gallery

0:45:350:45:38

and have look at frescos by Domenichino from a room

0:45:380:45:44

in the Villa Aldobrandini near Rome.

0:45:440:45:46

Then I became fascinated with, er, things about the pictures.

0:45:470:45:52

The space of the picture, you see, is really only one foot.

0:45:540:45:59

As you can see here, there's, er...

0:45:590:46:02

the picture begins here and there's some floor.

0:46:020:46:05

And the dwarf that you see is stood in front of this tapestry,

0:46:060:46:12

which is the back of the picture.

0:46:120:46:14

The picture is only the depth of a, of a person,

0:46:140:46:18

as a matter of fact, which is about one foot.

0:46:180:46:21

So I did my version of this painting.

0:46:210:46:24

You can see the tapestry quite clearly

0:46:240:46:27

and you can see I've painted a fleur-de-lys border.

0:46:270:46:31

And instead of a dwarf, I got

0:46:310:46:34

a friend, in fact, he's an art dealer called Kasmin,

0:46:340:46:38

to pose for me and I defined the front of the picture

0:46:380:46:43

by putting a sheet of glass over this section.

0:46:430:46:46

And I got Kas to pose for this and I did some drawings

0:46:460:46:50

and I took some photographs of him pressed against the glass.

0:46:500:46:54

And so my figure is trapped between the tapestry and the glass.

0:46:550:47:01

In fact, the idea of that painting

0:47:010:47:04

I've kept repeating and repeating,

0:47:040:47:07

and the idea of a border still interests me.

0:47:070:47:11

For example,

0:47:110:47:13

here's another painting that I did in Hollywood.

0:47:130:47:16

Because it's got a border round it,

0:47:170:47:20

you cannot, as it were, walk straight into the picture.

0:47:200:47:24

If it's got a border,

0:47:240:47:25

it's like this rope being here, and to climb into it,

0:47:250:47:28

you've got to climb over this,

0:47:280:47:30

you see, and then you'd have to go onto the diving board...

0:47:300:47:33

BOARD RATTLES

0:47:330:47:34

and fall into the swimming pool and there's the splash.

0:47:340:47:37

WATER SPLASHES

0:47:370:47:38

'Henry Geldzahler was a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.'

0:48:020:48:06

-INTERCOM BUZZES

-'Hello?'

0:48:060:48:07

Hi, Dave. It's Henry.

0:48:070:48:09

It was obvious that David was the most important person in his life.

0:48:140:48:18

They spoke on the telephone almost every day for 20 or 30 minutes.

0:48:180:48:22

Of course, in those days, there were no mobile phones.

0:48:220:48:25

There was a table where the telephone sat

0:48:250:48:27

and you had conversations.

0:48:270:48:30

So, I got to know David through one-sided phone conversations

0:48:300:48:34

that Henry was having with him and I realised

0:48:340:48:37

they shared absolutely every aspect of their life.

0:48:370:48:40

The art, the books, the friendships, the lovers, the gossip, everything.

0:48:400:48:47

It was total friendship.

0:48:480:48:49

David was essentially a figure of the 19th century in many respects.

0:48:520:48:56

The literature, the art, the music that he was deeply involved in,

0:48:560:49:02

much of it was 19th century,

0:49:020:49:03

and the same was true of Henry.

0:49:030:49:05

That's what David loved about Henry.

0:49:050:49:08

In the 1960s and the 1970s,

0:49:090:49:11

David was a very unfashionable artist.

0:49:110:49:14

He was involved with poetry, literature.

0:49:140:49:17

He wanted to bring all of these things into his art.

0:49:170:49:21

So, David was engaging all of these subjects that most artists

0:49:210:49:25

were working very hard to eliminate from their work.

0:49:250:49:28

He was,

0:49:290:49:31

in many ways, a figure who was excluded from the contemporary

0:49:310:49:35

dialogue that was taking place,

0:49:350:49:37

and to have Henry's, erm, imprimatur, interest, friendship,

0:49:370:49:41

I think it meant a great deal to him.

0:49:410:49:43

And he was not shy about telling David what he liked and what he

0:49:460:49:51

didn't like about both his art and his personality,

0:49:510:49:54

but he always did it in a very loving, gentle way.

0:49:540:49:56

One of the things that David relied on Henry

0:49:560:50:00

every six months or so, would be to go through a stack of drawings,

0:50:000:50:03

and every now and then, there'd be something,

0:50:030:50:05

and Henry would pick it up and tear it up, throw it in the trash.

0:50:050:50:08

MUSIC: Una Furtiva Lagrima from L'elisir D'Amore by Donizetti

0:50:100:50:13

If, next week,

0:50:300:50:32

this country did collapse

0:50:320:50:35

but on the very day it collapsed you met your absolute true love,

0:50:350:50:42

you wouldn't give two hoots about the bloody place collapsing,

0:50:420:50:45

would you?

0:50:450:50:46

I mean, you know, you'd think, "Oh, all's right with the world.

0:50:460:50:50

"If we have a sandwich and a, and a glass of beer, it doesn't matter."

0:50:500:50:53

# Una furtiva lagrima

0:50:550:51:01

# Negli occhi suoi spunto... #

0:51:040:51:11

Lots of David's portraits are about togetherness, aren't they, really?

0:51:140:51:18

Togetherness is two people,

0:51:180:51:20

and it's always a kind of interesting equation for him,

0:51:200:51:23

cos, in a way, we're all alone,

0:51:230:51:25

but it's nice to be part of something and part of somebody else.

0:51:250:51:29

David and Ossie were really good pals.

0:51:340:51:37

Ossie was a very flamboyant character

0:51:370:51:39

in his own way and single-minded.

0:51:390:51:41

In fact, his shows were quite unique,

0:51:430:51:45

and he'd bill the music to the fashion models,

0:51:450:51:48

to the whole catwalk experience.

0:51:480:51:52

We were all pals together

0:51:540:51:56

and I suppose leading a certain bohemian life.

0:51:560:51:59

And it was very innocent then.

0:52:000:52:02

You were enjoying being young,

0:52:020:52:04

and in London, and doing things you really liked doing.

0:52:040:52:08

David asked Ossie

0:52:100:52:12

and myself if we'd pose for him.

0:52:120:52:14

I remember going to Powis Terrace and him taking lots of photographs.

0:52:160:52:19

And I know, for instance,

0:52:190:52:22

he couldn't get Ossie's feet correctly painted,

0:52:220:52:26

so he put the shag pile carpet on the floor

0:52:260:52:29

and hid his feet in the carpet.

0:52:290:52:31

And he made the bedroom into the sitting room

0:52:360:52:39

cos he wanted to choose various things that he thought were

0:52:390:52:42

to do with our personalities.

0:52:420:52:44

I met Peter when he first came over with David.

0:52:530:52:56

There was this new person to engage with and it was Peter.

0:52:560:53:01

I think he made a nice home for David.

0:53:080:53:11

I think he wanted to have a, a stylish home.

0:53:110:53:14

# Un solo instante i palpiti

0:53:140:53:22

# Del suo bel cor sentir... #

0:53:260:53:33

David had acquired the leases on the surrounding flats

0:53:330:53:38

and said would I knock the walls down between them

0:53:380:53:42

and make a very lovely lateral apartment?

0:53:420:53:48

As far as I'm concerned, I just designed the flat

0:53:480:53:50

that I'd want for myself.

0:53:500:53:52

Little did I know, I'd later have it.

0:53:520:53:54

David's quite sociable, so he likes to give parties,

0:54:010:54:04

to have people around,

0:54:040:54:06

so to have a big room at one end of the apartment and at the other

0:54:060:54:10

and then a beautiful long gallery between them,

0:54:100:54:14

that was very appealing.

0:54:140:54:16

# ..Confondere i miei coi suoi sospir

0:54:160:54:30

# Cielo! Si puo morir! #

0:54:300:54:37

Peter dealt with curtains and tiles and finishes and furniture.

0:54:370:54:45

Peter would go out and hunt for things

0:54:460:54:48

and then he'd take David to see them and decide together.

0:54:480:54:51

He would go out to the market and

0:54:520:54:55

buy vases and, you know...

0:54:550:54:57

bits and pieces, but if it was like a big thing,

0:54:570:55:00

David would get very involved.

0:55:000:55:02

He was the first person I lived with, yeah.

0:55:080:55:12

Yeah, it was very nice, very, very nice. You know,

0:55:120:55:17

when people said to me, "Ah, well, when you said you were gay

0:55:170:55:22

"in 1960 or something and, well, it was illegal,"

0:55:220:55:27

and this, that and the other... and this, that and the other,

0:55:270:55:30

and I said, "Well, I lived in Bohemia

0:55:300:55:35

"and Bohemia is a tolerant place."

0:55:350:55:39

When he's in London, he quite often pops round.

0:55:440:55:47

He used to just ring the doorbell and come in and prowl around.

0:55:490:55:54

Particularly, he liked going into his old studio

0:55:560:56:00

and just standing there,

0:56:000:56:02

remembering all the great paintings he did there.

0:56:020:56:06

CLAVICHORD PLAYS

0:56:170:56:18

The clavichord was near a doorway

0:56:370:56:41

which was near the window.

0:56:410:56:42

-And so, it was, it was...

-And I was leaning against it.

0:56:420:56:45

Yes, and it was, it...

0:56:450:56:47

With all our underwear all over the floor.

0:56:470:56:49

It was... Wayne's jockstraps were everywhere.

0:56:490:56:51

Well, they, I needed them.

0:56:510:56:54

Oh.

0:56:540:56:55

I was playing A flat, this note.

0:56:550:56:59

And I wanted to call the painting A Flat.

0:57:010:57:05

A small flat.

0:57:050:57:06

Cos it was. A very small flat, yes.

0:57:060:57:09

But it was really a painting about stillness.

0:57:100:57:13

I think it would have been wonderful. It's unfinished.

0:57:130:57:16

The development of what should have been a really beautiful,

0:57:200:57:23

serene, happy, listening, still painting

0:57:230:57:28

became a huge dilemma of mixtures of colours and unfinished sequences

0:57:280:57:33

and painting out the floor and repainting in the background.

0:57:330:57:38

And every time we went round there, there was something different

0:57:380:57:42

going on and I just thought, "This will never get done."

0:57:420:57:45

He was worried about something called the vanishing point.

0:57:470:57:53

I think the problem wasn't really the vanishing point.

0:57:530:57:55

It was the "vanishing Peter".

0:57:550:57:57

David was splitting up with Peter,

0:57:590:58:02

and that was a very upsetting period, for both of them, actually.

0:58:020:58:06

David was very upset.

0:58:090:58:10

He was, I think, genuinely in love with Peter.

0:58:100:58:14

They had their troubles. But, you know,

0:58:140:58:18

starting a relationship is, er, very tricky, er, even a man

0:58:180:58:23

and a woman, and, er, the first time either of them

0:58:230:58:27

had ever been involved in such a relationship.

0:58:270:58:30

Of course, they were going to have problems.

0:58:300:58:33

That was a very upsetting period.

0:58:370:58:39

I think he was taking tranquilisers as well.

0:58:400:58:43

He was just crying a lot.

0:58:440:58:47

I mean, it had been a long period that he'd been with Peter,

0:58:470:58:50

and it was just suddenly a devastating point, which actually

0:58:500:58:53

did come through the picture, because it was an unfinished scene,

0:58:530:58:56

like his life was unfinished without him.

0:58:560:59:00

# Un solo instante i palpiti

0:59:150:59:23

# Del suo bel cor sentir! #

0:59:260:59:34

I think there were periods of depression.

0:59:380:59:41

I have films of him lying on

0:59:440:59:46

the water bed, obviously very depressed, being comforted by Henry.

0:59:460:59:50

Whether that was related to the break-up with Peter

0:59:571:00:00

or whether that was just something that is endemic

1:00:001:00:04

to his personality, I'm not, I've never been absolutely sure.

1:00:041:00:08

He can be extremely up and then we've all seen

1:00:081:00:13

moods where he's not happy.

1:00:131:00:15

But he got a lot of support.

1:00:241:00:26

In the summer of '75 and '76, both he and Henry

1:00:261:00:30

stayed all summer at my house at the shore.

1:00:301:00:33

It was right on the beach.

1:00:361:00:37

He liked being there and he liked painting.

1:00:411:00:45

He uses his work to escape the world.

1:00:451:00:49

And I remember he'd sit there in the living room and paint

1:00:491:00:52

and eat out of this huge barrel of, um, something -

1:00:521:00:55

it wasn't potato chips or something, and pretty soon the floor

1:00:551:00:58

would be covered with them like they were sawdust or something.

1:00:581:01:02

It was an absolutely... It was a unique time.

1:01:021:01:04

That's where he started the Blue Guitar series.

1:01:071:01:09

I think that was in '76.

1:01:091:01:11

I'm not sure whether that idea came from Henry or...

1:01:111:01:14

cos Henry read a lot - read a lot of poetry,

1:01:141:01:16

but David always read a lot, too,

1:01:161:01:18

so I don't know who got the idea,

1:01:181:01:21

but he spent all summer doing that series.

1:01:211:01:25

CLASSICAL GUITAR MUSIC

1:01:251:01:33

I mean, I'd begun the etchings and then I thought, the title,

1:01:391:01:42

I just thought I would call it, er, The Blue Guitar by David Hockney,

1:01:421:01:48

inspired by Wallace Stevens who was inspired by Pablo Picasso.

1:01:481:01:53

And the names could get bigger as they go down.

1:01:531:01:56

The source of the poem was a painting of Picasso,

1:02:031:02:07

and so I'm turning the poem back into a painting and etchings.

1:02:071:02:11

They said, "You have a blue guitar. You do not play things as they are."

1:02:141:02:19

The man replied,

1:02:191:02:20

"Things as they are are changed upon the blue guitar."

1:02:201:02:24

And they said then, "But play you must, a tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

1:02:241:02:29

"a tune upon the blue guitar of things exactly as they are."

1:02:291:02:33

When I read it, you see, I loved the phrase,

1:02:371:02:40

"You do not play things as they are",

1:02:401:02:42

because the Philistine response to Picasso was,

1:02:421:02:46

"You do not paint things as they are".

1:02:461:02:49

Well, there's no such thing as "things as they are".

1:02:491:02:53

In painting, where you deceive the eye with all sorts of devices

1:02:531:02:58

to make things look as they are...

1:02:581:03:01

I don't know, this, the poem just triggered ideas in my head.

1:03:011:03:05

So, I started making drawings which are just inventions,

1:03:051:03:08

which was, er, a change for me from the past two years.

1:03:081:03:12

I... In the painting, for instance, there's things...

1:03:121:03:16

Er, the coloured line right at the top is simply a coloured line,

1:03:161:03:21

so that's absolutely as it is. There's no illusion there.

1:03:211:03:25

But the water falling is illusionistic.

1:03:251:03:28

And you make references to other kinds of painting.

1:03:281:03:32

I mean, playing games like that seemed such fun to me.

1:03:321:03:36

I just went on and on.

1:03:361:03:38

The work has always been this core of David's life.

1:03:551:04:00

The first break-up was very difficult for him.

1:04:001:04:04

But the art is the thing

1:04:041:04:05

that gives him the anchor, in life and in the world.

1:04:051:04:11

I mean, I think anything that happens,

1:04:111:04:13

as long as he's able to, er, see the world through his painting

1:04:131:04:16

and stuff, he could... he could survive anything.

1:04:161:04:19

I've, you know... I've taken photographs for a long, long time

1:04:481:04:52

and I have about 100 albums full of photographs.

1:04:521:04:54

All of life, it's all recorded pictorially.

1:04:541:04:58

Most people who ever come into it, I photograph in some way.

1:04:581:05:02

And later, maybe I draw them

1:05:021:05:04

but usually I don't draw them instantly, I just take a snap.

1:05:041:05:07

It is like a diary.

1:05:071:05:09

I'm just a snapper, really.

1:05:211:05:23

We see so many photographic images and film images

1:05:301:05:33

and they're so mainstream,

1:05:331:05:35

we're so used to thinking of those as the way

1:05:351:05:37

of representing the world,

1:05:371:05:39

but he knows that one can do things with painting

1:05:391:05:42

that one cannot do with, with erm, photographic technologies.

1:05:421:05:48

One can express visions of the world, ways of seeing,

1:05:481:05:52

that invite you to look at things

1:05:521:05:54

that you would only just glance at if it was a photograph

1:05:541:05:57

or even if you were seeing it in reality.

1:05:571:05:59

He's introducing something much more personal, something more moving.

1:05:591:06:05

And he's trying with many tactics

1:06:051:06:08

to show that painting can do this.

1:06:081:06:11

I'd become very, very aware of this

1:06:181:06:21

frozen moment that was very unreal to me.

1:06:211:06:25

The photographs didn't really have life in the way a drawing

1:06:251:06:29

or painting did.

1:06:291:06:30

And I realised it couldn't because of what it is.

1:06:301:06:34

Compared to Rembrandt looking at himself for hours and hours

1:06:341:06:38

and scrutinising his face, and putting all these

1:06:381:06:41

hours into the picture that you're going to look at,

1:06:411:06:44

naturally, there's many more hours there than even you can give it.

1:06:441:06:48

A photograph is the other way round.

1:06:481:06:51

It's a fraction of a second, frozen.

1:06:511:06:54

So, the moment you've looked at it for even four seconds,

1:06:541:06:57

you're looking at it for far more than the camera did.

1:06:571:07:01

And, er, I...

1:07:011:07:03

er, it dawned on me that this was visible, actually.

1:07:031:07:06

It IS visible, and, er, the more you become aware of it,

1:07:061:07:12

the more this is a terrible weakness.

1:07:121:07:14

Drawings and paintings do not have this.

1:07:141:07:16

I made a little photographic experiment with the Polaroid,

1:07:181:07:22

by putting 30 of them together, made a,

1:07:221:07:25

a photograph of this house in a way that I'd been trying to paint

1:07:251:07:29

the house from three different viewpoints.

1:07:291:07:33

And the photograph excited me so much and...

1:07:331:07:37

Well, time WAS appearing in the picture and, because of it,

1:07:371:07:44

space - a bigger illusion of space.

1:07:441:07:48

Now, the space is an illusion - I was aware of that,

1:07:481:07:51

but the time is not an illusion.

1:07:511:07:53

It is real and accounted for in the number of pictures.

1:07:531:07:57

You KNOW it took time to take them, wait for them,

1:07:591:08:04

put them down and so on. And this began...

1:08:041:08:06

I realised was, er, giving you this illusion of space

1:08:061:08:11

that we had not seen - I had not seen - in a photograph before.

1:08:111:08:14

I'm interested in pictures,

1:08:461:08:48

made any way, and the visible world

1:08:481:08:53

and representing it.

1:08:531:08:54

That's why Picasso is always interesting.

1:08:541:08:58

He never left the visible world - never left depiction, actually.

1:08:581:09:03

RAIN FALLS GENTLY

1:09:071:09:15

His greatest hero for most of his life has been Pablo Picasso,

1:09:311:09:35

whose art moves through phases and different approaches

1:09:351:09:39

and styles with great frequency throughout a long life.

1:09:391:09:43

So David's aware of the fact

1:09:531:09:54

that almost everything he does is going to sell the second

1:09:541:09:58

he's put his name to it and he does not want to become a machine

1:09:581:10:01

for producing items of value.

1:10:011:10:03

He frequently ran into periods when...

1:10:241:10:27

he was dissatisfied with, erm, what he was doing

1:10:271:10:32

and thrashing about looking for new and different ways of doing it.

1:10:321:10:36

He did not like just going on using...

1:10:361:10:39

His...immense facility for drawing didn't satisfy his ambition.

1:10:391:10:45

Surfaces that you can decide where to look, I find fascinating.

1:10:561:11:01

You know, in a way, with water,

1:11:011:11:05

you can look at a reflection,

1:11:051:11:08

then you're looking at the surface,

1:11:081:11:11

or you can suddenly take the reflection away

1:11:111:11:13

and look through it...

1:11:131:11:15

And somehow the problem of depicting it

1:11:191:11:23

becomes a wonderful way of, in your head,

1:11:231:11:28

thinking of graphic terms and devices to depict it all.

1:11:281:11:33

Early ones are done with very, very stylised

1:11:431:11:48

form in the water -

1:11:481:11:50

jigsaw shapes with a heavy blue line describing the interlocking shapes

1:11:501:11:56

as though somebody's jumped in the pool

1:11:561:11:58

and all the shapes are dancing.

1:11:581:12:00

The painting called The Sunbather - the dancing line is yellow,

1:12:051:12:09

which happens if it's very sunny

1:12:091:12:11

and you get this dancing yellow line all the time.

1:12:111:12:15

Later on I could make the water look very fluid

1:12:231:12:26

and wet by putting acrylic paint that was very, very diluted,

1:12:261:12:32

and you put a detergent in it, so when you paint on the canvas,

1:12:321:12:36

the canvas soaks it up like blotting paper.

1:12:361:12:39

Even the painting of the Splash, for instance -

1:12:481:12:51

somehow what I quite liked about doing it was

1:12:511:12:53

the perversity of painting something that lasts for one second.

1:12:531:12:59

But it took me seven days' work to paint the splash itself.

1:12:591:13:04

If you look carefully, it's painted in single lines with a small brush.

1:13:041:13:08

I like the idea, you see, of a realistic painting,

1:13:161:13:21

of a real figure, looking at another figure

1:13:211:13:24

but the other figure is distorted naturally by the water.

1:13:241:13:28

COW MOOS

1:13:581:14:01

SHEEP BLEATS

1:14:021:14:04

I was the technical director

1:14:081:14:10

when the Met opened the French triple bill.

1:14:101:14:12

What we did was to take David's pieces, in the case of Parade,

1:14:141:14:19

the ideas of someone

1:14:191:14:20

who's basically not working all the time in the theatre,

1:14:201:14:23

and translate them to the stage,

1:14:231:14:25

but add the things that you know that...that make it...make it work.

1:14:251:14:29

Oh, I think the challenges were, for him, just the scale of things.

1:14:311:14:34

This is a model of the Metropolitan Opera stage.

1:14:391:14:43

And the story of the opera is about a naughty child.

1:14:431:14:48

And the little boy says,

1:14:481:14:50

"I'm fed up of being good. I want to be wicked."

1:14:501:14:54

So, he picks up a poker from the fireplace,

1:14:541:14:57

he runs around the room, he smashes the teapot.

1:14:571:15:01

MUSIC: L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges

1:15:031:15:10

Very shortly after the Met reopened, there was Parade,

1:15:101:15:14

in the wintertime when everyone is desperate for light

1:15:141:15:18

and colour and here is something totally fresh, totally new,

1:15:181:15:22

something unlike anyone had ever seen at the Met.

1:15:221:15:26

Um, and I think it just...

1:15:261:15:28

It lifted people's spirits and it...

1:15:281:15:31

it kind of took them to a different place.

1:15:311:15:33

And David was a major instrument in having that happen.

1:15:331:15:37

Henry and David in Europe, they would arrive in a European City

1:15:541:15:59

and immediately go to the opera house,

1:15:591:16:01

look to see what was playing, get tickets.

1:16:011:16:03

And then they'd go to the museum.

1:16:031:16:06

Then they'd have lunch and they'd go back to the hotel.

1:16:061:16:09

Henry would write.

1:16:091:16:10

David would have his sketch pad and his coloured pencils.

1:16:101:16:13

Then they'd have a nap.

1:16:131:16:15

Then they'd come out, have dinner, go to the opera house.

1:16:151:16:17

MUSIC: Tristan Und Isolde by Wagner

1:16:191:16:21

There's a lot of music.

1:16:311:16:33

There's often four minutes of music with nobody singing, which means

1:16:331:16:38

you've to be looking at something.

1:16:381:16:40

In fact, you've to be looking at something in an interesting way

1:16:401:16:43

to hear that music, to really hear it.

1:16:431:16:46

So, we'll figure a way, you know, to slowly reveal the forest

1:16:461:16:51

and so on, I mean, just do it very slowly.

1:16:511:16:53

'Tristan And Isolde,'

1:16:531:16:55

I worked for a year in here on it.

1:16:551:16:57

One year, actually, it took,

1:16:581:17:00

'matching the music and getting the colours and things.

1:17:001:17:05

'It was a long, big job. I used'

1:17:051:17:08

to sit up here with it and I'd...

1:17:081:17:12

We had a big model with lights, and I had all these little lights

1:17:121:17:18

where I could, er, change it and do things.

1:17:181:17:23

Sometimes, I'd smoke a joint

1:17:231:17:25

and then put on the music and fiddle with the lights.

1:17:251:17:29

It was terrific, actually, that, doing it.

1:17:291:17:32

And, I must confess the other night I saw Tosca, I was looking

1:17:361:17:41

at Tosca, and it suddenly occurred to me that the only Puccini opera

1:17:411:17:46

that doesn't have a lot of cruelty in it is, um, Boheme.

1:17:461:17:50

At least she dies, er, from TB.

1:17:501:17:53

This opera, not only does nobody die,

1:17:531:17:56

it ends on the best note of hope I've ever come across

1:17:561:18:02

on a musical stage, I think,

1:18:021:18:04

that there is real hope for us wretched people.

1:18:041:18:08

This is actually the drawing we're finally using to make

1:18:081:18:11

the set for the Poulenc opera, which is a scene in the South of France.

1:18:111:18:15

It's supposed to be jolly and pretty. Erm...

1:18:151:18:18

'Unlike some designers and unlike some artists,

1:18:181:18:22

'David was completely swept up with the music.

1:18:221:18:25

'To him, the music suggested visual things

1:18:251:18:29

'and I think that was a big appeal.'

1:18:291:18:33

And one of the things that often is missing

1:18:331:18:36

in theatrical productions is that kind of reverence for,

1:18:361:18:40

for the...for the work of art,

1:18:401:18:42

but also a kind of willingness to be completely one

1:18:421:18:46

with its slightly sentimental side,

1:18:461:18:48

and David loved that.

1:18:481:18:50

MUSIC: Parade by Eric Satie

1:18:501:18:51

'It's gone now for me, music.'

1:19:171:19:20

I don't go to the opera any more because I can't really hear it.

1:19:201:19:25

I mean,

1:19:251:19:26

I'd have to sit right at the front or something.

1:19:261:19:29

I mean, I...I don't go because

1:19:291:19:32

if you go, I leave the theatre a bit depressed.

1:19:321:19:37

Well, he's just coming off of his theatre work, OK, and he's

1:20:121:20:14

fed up with that.

1:20:141:20:16

He doesn't know what he wants to do next

1:20:161:20:18

and he is kind of loose at this moment.

1:20:181:20:21

And he's visiting friends and he's having a good time in New York,

1:20:211:20:24

and he comes over for dinner, OK, to see what I'm up about.

1:20:241:20:27

And so, I show him the, er, great Ellsworth Kelly paper images.

1:20:271:20:32

And he's absolutely thunderstruck. He's moved, really moved.

1:20:321:20:35

And he also said, you know, 'These, Ken, are fantastic.

1:20:351:20:38

"How are they made?"

1:20:381:20:40

So I said, "Well, you know, stay for, you know, after dinner.

1:20:401:20:43

"Stay till tomorrow and I'll show you. We'll make up a couple of pieces of paper

1:20:431:20:46

"and I'll show you how it's done."

1:20:461:20:47

That, that's the turn-on, you know. "Oh, you'll show me? OK."

1:20:471:20:52

So we started to play.

1:20:521:20:53

MUSIC: Blue Pools by John Harle

1:20:531:20:55

At first he confessed

1:21:041:21:05

about, "Oh, I don't want to do this.

1:21:051:21:07

"I have to make every one of these myself," you know.

1:21:071:21:09

"They're not reproducible," you know.

1:21:091:21:12

"I don't know whether I want to do all these."

1:21:121:21:15

But he did all these, and every time he did a new one,

1:21:151:21:18

he wanted to make another one.

1:21:181:21:19

And we wound up working 18 hours a day.

1:21:191:21:21

I mean, it was slave labour for 49 days.

1:21:211:21:24

All of us just loved it. We couldn't get enough of it.

1:21:241:21:27

Because each and every piece he made was just one more note

1:21:271:21:32

of greatness that he was putting down for us to hear, to see.

1:21:321:21:37

And he knew that he was onto something as much as we did.

1:21:371:21:42

I think Paper Pools helped him tremendously in his painting.

1:21:531:21:55

Yeah, I really do.

1:21:551:21:57

Um, because I think it freed him up.

1:21:581:22:00

I think it also gave him a different kind of idea about colour,

1:22:041:22:08

how to use colour more boldly.

1:22:081:22:10

Come on, Stanley. Come on.

1:22:581:23:00

'David loved having the dachshunds down there and walking on the beach.'

1:23:021:23:05

DOG BARKS

1:23:081:23:09

'But I think, ultimately, David's house in Malibu, it wasn't very David.

1:23:121:23:16

'I mean, it was very David in its kind of hominess,

1:23:161:23:19

'but I don't think it ever became

1:23:191:23:21

'his home, I mean, David's never been a weekend person, so

1:23:211:23:25

'I thought it was a bit strange.

1:23:251:23:26

'And it was decorated very nicely and cosy.

1:23:261:23:29

'It was very funky and old-fashioned, unlike slick Malibu at the time.'

1:23:311:23:35

But, er, as anybody that's lived in LA knows,

1:23:361:23:39

it's actually a long way to go to go have lunch or to have a dinner

1:23:391:23:43

and get in the car and drive.

1:23:431:23:44

It was a transitional time.

1:23:521:23:53

A lot of David's older friends were not there all the time.

1:23:531:23:57

It was a world in the 1970s where to be gay was

1:24:041:24:07

to be beautiful and fashionable.

1:24:071:24:09

It... The whole world was right there in the palm of your hands.

1:24:091:24:13

When David came to New York, a lot of times, he was here to party.

1:24:161:24:19

He would go to the baths.

1:24:191:24:21

He would go out to the bars.

1:24:211:24:23

He was having a good time.

1:24:231:24:24

And then, all of a sudden, AIDS came along

1:24:281:24:31

and suddenly things went exactly in the opposite direction,

1:24:311:24:34

and it... It was like a plague.

1:24:341:24:36

One person after the next would come down with AIDS

1:24:551:25:00

and it was quite simply a death sentence.

1:25:001:25:02

I think it was something that

1:25:361:25:37

shook David to his core.

1:25:371:25:39

You think about them every day

1:25:411:25:42

and then you stop it,

1:25:421:25:44

because there's too many, actually,

1:25:441:25:46

er, and it would

1:25:461:25:50

rather drive you mad if you think about it.

1:25:501:25:53

Er, and slowly, you have to realise it's kind of part of...

1:25:531:25:58

it's become part of your life, this, er...

1:25:581:26:02

something you never, ever expected.

1:26:021:26:05

At the time, I couldn't write down all the people.

1:26:131:26:17

I mean...

1:26:201:26:21

It did change New York.

1:26:241:26:26

I think it's THAT that changed it more than anything else,

1:26:261:26:30

because I...

1:26:301:26:31

When I think of all those people, if they were still there

1:26:331:26:37

in New York, New York would be different today, it would.

1:26:371:26:41

There would be Bohemia still.

1:26:431:26:46

And that's the world I arrived in and that's the world

1:26:461:26:48

I lived in, actually.

1:26:481:26:51

Two thirds of the people that he was really close to

1:26:551:26:57

suddenly just weren't there any more.

1:26:571:26:59

They just disappeared.

1:26:591:27:02

And Henry, when Henry died, it really was the final blow.

1:27:021:27:05

Of course, Henry didn't die of anything to do with HIV or AIDS,

1:27:061:27:10

but I think that was a terrible blow for David.

1:27:101:27:14

When Henry died, it affected David, I think, particularly badly

1:27:181:27:23

because I think he realised he was never going to find another person

1:27:231:27:26

who knew him as well as Henry did.

1:27:261:27:29

Truman Capote once said, "Love is never having to finish a sentence."

1:27:311:27:34

And what that means is you're so much on the same page

1:27:341:27:37

with the other person, you can begin a sentence

1:27:371:27:39

and they immediately know what you're going to say.

1:27:391:27:42

It's that kind of communication

1:27:421:27:44

that Henry had with David and vice versa. And when Henry died, that was

1:27:441:27:49

something that David never really discovered in anybody else again.

1:27:491:27:53

CHAMBER MUSIC PLAYS

1:28:001:28:02

FIRE CRACKLES

1:28:021:28:03

So, I goes round to David's, you see, one morning,

1:28:211:28:24

and he's got this colour TV set and he says, er, and says,

1:28:241:28:27

"Ah, would you like to see it? You ever seen colour TV?"

1:28:271:28:30

And he switches it on, you see, and he gets the colour

1:28:301:28:33

and he turns the colour up right full on,

1:28:331:28:36

as far as the knobs'll go, you know, and he goes, "Aye."

1:28:361:28:39

And he looks like this and he says, "Aye,"

1:28:391:28:41

he says, "you can have it Fauvist if you want," you know.

1:28:411:28:44

# Happy birthday, dear David

1:28:451:28:50

# Happy birthday to you. #

1:28:501:28:54

CHEERING

1:28:541:28:57

-WOMAN:

-Oh, he's icing his cake. Oh, you see that?

1:29:041:29:08

'There's a wonderful self-portrait

1:29:081:29:09

'he did on his birthday, where he literally

1:29:091:29:11

'took off his Brooks Brothers red-and-white striped shirt'

1:29:111:29:14

and laid it on the copying machine and printed it in red.

1:29:141:29:17

It's a wonderful... And then he drew his face

1:29:171:29:19

and did the self-portrait.

1:29:191:29:21

He has such bravura

1:29:231:29:25

because he has such amazing ability as a draughtsman.

1:29:251:29:28

FAX MACHINE BEEPS

1:29:361:29:37

When the plain paper fax came,

1:29:391:29:41

where you could have individual pieces of paper,

1:29:411:29:44

David bought back that

1:29:441:29:45

pattern he uses all the time of doing pictures in grids,

1:29:451:29:48

so that the small piece of paper can suddenly become

1:29:481:29:50

this enormous picture.

1:29:501:29:52

WOMAN: Oh, it's tennis.

1:29:541:29:56

There's two players, a net in the middle.

1:29:561:29:59

APPLAUSE

1:29:591:30:00

He even sent a big show, a whole show, to Brazil,

1:30:031:30:05

to the Biennale, er, that he never went to.

1:30:051:30:09

He just gave the instructions of how to put it up and it was put up.

1:30:091:30:13

I think he thought it was amusing that hand was coming back

1:30:131:30:18

to this technology that most people in business

1:30:181:30:21

were using to communicate contracts and legal deals.

1:30:211:30:25

I think he's always looking for new tools.

1:30:261:30:29

He takes something that seems very common and everyday.

1:30:291:30:34

And in 2009, David had already done, I think,

1:30:341:30:38

about 200 of the iPhone drawings.

1:30:381:30:41

Most of them were flowers.

1:30:411:30:42

We all got them in New York, when we woke up

1:30:421:30:44

in the morning, so you'd have this wonderful flower

1:30:441:30:47

in the sunlight of his bedroom window.

1:30:471:30:48

Then the iPad came out

1:30:501:30:52

and then the drawings got so even more amazing, but also you

1:30:521:30:55

could do the playback of the animation of the actual drawing,

1:30:551:30:59

which was a huge new thing.

1:30:591:31:01

Even David had never been able to watch his own work as it was

1:31:011:31:04

unfolding.

1:31:041:31:05

I think it was a real lens into David's creative process.

1:31:071:31:10

Stanley.

1:31:191:31:21

Good boy. Good boy.

1:31:211:31:24

He's a good boy.

1:31:241:31:26

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

1:31:331:31:34

I think that David wants us to think differently.

1:31:551:31:59

He wants us to see differently and think differently.

1:31:591:32:02

He makes you stand in the painting.

1:32:021:32:04

He makes you look up and left and right and down.

1:32:041:32:07

And you, the experience becomes a different one

1:32:071:32:10

from the traditional easel painting.

1:32:101:32:12

David thought that the idea of a viewer

1:32:181:32:21

and the vanishing point was very anti-humanistic.

1:32:211:32:25

And the idea of you being the vanishing point

1:32:251:32:29

and the world around you opening up to you

1:32:291:32:31

was almost a religious concept in David's mind, I think.

1:32:311:32:35

I think there is possibly a great connection

1:32:441:32:48

between the way we depict space and the way we behave in it.

1:32:481:32:53

I've always thought perspective was a problem,

1:33:021:33:05

so anything that is now helping to change it, like this

1:33:051:33:10

photograph I did on an iPhone, I find quite exciting, actually.

1:33:101:33:16

This is... This seems to me to be widening perspectives.

1:33:181:33:23

It's a different perspective, wider.

1:33:231:33:27

Things are opening out, it seems to me.

1:33:271:33:30

It's better to go that way than that way, I think.

1:33:321:33:35

That way is... better than doing that, I think.

1:33:351:33:41

He realised that there was a non-photographic way

1:33:571:33:59

of seeing the world, which David really embraced.

1:33:591:34:02

Particularly because we don't see the world through one eye,

1:34:041:34:07

we see the world through two eyes spatially,

1:34:071:34:10

and I think that the spaces of California, the Grand Canyon,

1:34:101:34:12

all of those things excited him, and he always thought that painting

1:34:121:34:16

could express those things in ways that photography couldn't.

1:34:161:34:20

He always said one photograph is not good enough

1:34:221:34:25

and that photo collages were

1:34:251:34:27

an attempt to try to have a wider perspective.

1:34:271:34:30

He kept saying, "Wider perspectives are needed now."

1:34:351:34:38

'There are some good landscape photographs.'

1:34:531:34:57

There are, but not that many.

1:34:581:35:00

Partly because, I mean,

1:35:011:35:04

cameras see surfaces, they don't see space.

1:35:041:35:09

But WE see space.

1:35:091:35:11

I think the thrill in landscape

1:35:131:35:15

is a spatial thrill, actually.

1:35:151:35:18

I think so.

1:35:181:35:19

Nature is the endless infinity, isn't it?

1:36:161:36:19

You always go back to nature for things.

1:36:201:36:23

I mean...

1:36:231:36:24

That's what I was doing in Yorkshire, yeah.

1:36:241:36:27

He ate it, yeah.

1:36:371:36:38

So, now we've got an I

1:36:381:36:40

that's been made into an X.

1:36:401:36:42

You ate it, didn't you, Barney?

1:36:421:36:44

See that letter there, look? That X?

1:36:441:36:46

Barney ate the X. So I had to make a new one.

1:36:461:36:49

-So you had to make one from an I.

-Yeah.

1:36:491:36:51

And what about that missing I?

1:36:511:36:52

That's totally confused me now. I realise what's thrown me out.

1:36:521:36:55

You never had too many Is.

1:36:551:36:57

It's lack of the I.

1:36:571:36:58

Yeah, in this game.

1:36:581:37:00

65. That's, er, K.

1:37:001:37:02

I don't believe it. And you've got 177?

1:37:041:37:08

-Yeah.

-And I'm 65?

-I'm 193.

1:37:081:37:11

You've not been watching.

1:37:111:37:13

And that, also, you see, Barney helping's not much help, really.

1:37:131:37:16

No, he's a bit thick.

1:37:161:37:17

He can't spell that good, really.

1:37:171:37:19

No, he can't spell at all.

1:37:191:37:21

Would you like the timer?

1:37:211:37:22

No, I would not, sir. Thank you.

1:37:221:37:25

DAVID LAUGHS

1:37:251:37:27

My mother was a very, very...strong woman.

1:37:351:37:40

She could look at me with piercing eyes.

1:37:401:37:46

All right.

1:37:501:37:52

Oh, there they are.

1:37:521:37:53

She died at 99. She lived

1:37:551:37:57

most of the 20th century.

1:37:571:38:00

She was born in 1900

1:38:001:38:02

and died in 1999.

1:38:021:38:04

Ooh, are you feeling it, Paul?

1:38:061:38:08

-No.

-Oh.

1:38:081:38:09

Great! The Queen's on!

1:38:131:38:15

'She had four of her children there when she died,

1:38:151:38:18

'so she was blessed, actually.'

1:38:181:38:19

Cheers.

1:38:191:38:21

Cheers.

1:38:211:38:22

'I think her last act of will was waiting for John to come

1:38:241:38:29

'from Australia.'

1:38:291:38:30

Do you want some more cream, David?

1:38:301:38:32

Oh, just a little bit, please. That's enough.

1:38:321:38:34

-'There?

-Yes, thank you.'

1:38:341:38:36

The last night I stayed up with her telling her John would be

1:38:361:38:41

here in a few minutes.

1:38:411:38:42

And then she died two hours later.

1:38:421:38:46

But he was very pleased that he'd got there

1:38:461:38:50

and she knew he'd got there.

1:38:501:38:52

I remember 1966 and I've just arrived back in Bradford,

1:39:121:39:17

and you can tell, I've just come back from Hollywood.

1:39:171:39:20

And I put a cigarette in my mouth

1:39:201:39:22

and my father's trying to take it out of my hand.

1:39:221:39:25

And that's 50 years ago now.

1:39:271:39:30

And I'm just about to outlive him, I think, this year.

1:39:301:39:33

Back then, in the '50s, you've got to remember that a young painter

1:39:491:39:53

was 40.

1:39:531:39:54

So, if you were going to be a painter,

1:39:541:39:58

it took a tremendous amount of commitment then...

1:39:581:40:01

that you had to face the fact that you'd probably be digging roads

1:40:011:40:06

or working in the mill or anything

1:40:061:40:09

until you got old enough to be a young painter.

1:40:091:40:12

In those days,

1:40:191:40:21

there was a tremendous amount of aggression going on,

1:40:211:40:24

and I was involved with various gangs and things.

1:40:241:40:27

I was all in all sorts of fights, always was.

1:40:271:40:30

But Dave was much tougher than me.

1:40:301:40:32

He wasn't involved with fights and things.

1:40:321:40:35

But he'd go around with his bowler hat on

1:40:351:40:38

and his moleskin trousers, pushing a pram

1:40:381:40:42

with an easel, canvas and paints.

1:40:421:40:46

And it takes a bit of strength to do that.

1:40:471:40:50

I couldn't have done that.

1:40:521:40:53

# L is for the way you look at me... #

1:40:551:41:01

When David left to go to America,

1:41:011:41:03

he just changed his pram for whatever else there was out there.

1:41:031:41:07

It was the same thing.

1:41:071:41:10

In a way, LA was another Bradford.

1:41:101:41:12

His whole outlook on things, in many ways, has stayed the same.

1:41:141:41:18

I mean, there were things that opened up for him,

1:41:181:41:21

like the gay thing and all that.

1:41:211:41:24

I mean, that, that was a tremendous influence on him.

1:41:241:41:27

But, basically, he's still searching.

1:41:271:41:32

# L is for the way you look at me

1:41:571:42:03

# O is for the only one I see

1:42:031:42:10

# V is very, very extraordinary

1:42:101:42:16

# E is even more than anyone that you adore can

1:42:161:42:22

# Love is all that I can give to you

1:42:221:42:28

# Love is more than just a game for two

1:42:281:42:34

# Two in love can make it

1:42:341:42:37

# Take my heart and please don't break it

1:42:371:42:40

# Love was made for me and you

1:42:401:42:45

# Love was made for me and you

1:42:451:42:50

# Love was made... #

1:42:501:42:54

MUSIC: Sauntering by John Harle

1:42:581:43:00

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