The observation about one figure rooted in space and another passing through is brillant. It really captures the tension between connection and seperation that defines relationships. Your reading of Don Bachardy's deathbed drawings of Isherwood alongside the original 1968 portrait adds such emotional weight. The way Hockney uses architectural elements like the wall in Goldfarb and Masurovsky to literalize that emotional distance is striking.
Exactly! And the imbalance that is baked into the whole thing that defines the coming together and pulling away. It reminded me of how Anne Carson talks about cicadas and the curse of the Midas touch
Excellent essay! Another possible inclusion, or satellite, to the series of double portraits is his “Model with Unfinished Self-Portrait” from 1977. Gregory is asleep and Hockney, pictured within the picture, seems to be looking over him; very much like an annunciation or nativity scene.
The observation about one figure rooted in space and another passing through is brillant. It really captures the tension between connection and seperation that defines relationships. Your reading of Don Bachardy's deathbed drawings of Isherwood alongside the original 1968 portrait adds such emotional weight. The way Hockney uses architectural elements like the wall in Goldfarb and Masurovsky to literalize that emotional distance is striking.
Exactly! And the imbalance that is baked into the whole thing that defines the coming together and pulling away. It reminded me of how Anne Carson talks about cicadas and the curse of the Midas touch
Excellent essay! Another possible inclusion, or satellite, to the series of double portraits is his “Model with Unfinished Self-Portrait” from 1977. Gregory is asleep and Hockney, pictured within the picture, seems to be looking over him; very much like an annunciation or nativity scene.
Yes absolutely, and also with the Vichy dynamic of the artist being removed from the composition because he has to leave to make the picture