1979
Hockney’s father, Kenneth, dies in February. Hockney returns to London. He publishes an article in the Observer (4 March 1979) criticizing the Tate for favouring abstract art in its acquisitions policy. Back in Los Angeles, he works at the Gemini workshop on a series of Matisse-influenced lithographs of Celia Birtwell and Ann Upton. He also produces a series of quickly painted portraits in acrylic, using a bold palette, including a portrait of Divine. He begins designing a triple bill for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, directed by John Dexter: Eric Satie’s ballet Parade and two short operas – Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias and Maurice Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.

Parade collage from Parade Triple Bill, 1980

1980
In June he sees the show Picasso from the Musée Picasso at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Pablo Picasso, the Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective in New York. He then travels to London to work with Gregory Evans and John Dexter on the Covent Garden production of Parade. Influenced by Picasso’s ability to work quickly and spontaneously he produces sixteen canvases on music and dance themes. In the autumn he travels back to Los Angeles, where he paints Nichols Canyon and Mulholland Drive. In New York he works with the Metropolitan Opera on the Satie/Poulenc/Ravel production and meets Ian Falconer, who assists with the designs.

The artist’s eye, National Gallery, London exhibition poster, 1981

1981
Delayed by strikes, Hockney’s triple bill finally opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in March to rave reviews. Begins work on new designs for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du Printemps, Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex for the Metropolitan Opera. In May he travels to China with Gregory Evans and Stephen Spender to work on a commission for a book, China Diary, for which Spender is to write the text and Hockney is to supply the drawings and photographs. Because of the intensity of their trip Hockney is forced to draw quickly and produces watercolours in part based on memory. Gemini publishes a series of new lithographs, mostly depicting Celia Birtwell. Hockney buys the house in the Hollywood Hills he has rented since 1979. During the summer he organizes The artist’s eye, one in a series of exhibitions at the National Gallery, London.

Tourists, China, 1981

1982
Ian Falconer goes to live with Hockney in Los Angeles. The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris suggests an exhibition of Hockney’s photography. This proposal makes Hockney ponder the merits of photography and how to represent three dimensions in two. In an investigation of Cubism and pictorial space he starts experimenting with Polaroid composites. By May he has completed 150 works and opens a show in New York in June called Drawing with a Camera. In July he visits Paris with Ian Falconer for the Pompidou show and then stays in London, where he paints David, Celia, Stephen and Ian. Hockney goes to Martha’s Vineyard with Gregory Evans in August and returns to drawing. In September he begins making photocollages using a Pentax 110 camera, in which he particularly likes the absence of white borders. Travels with David Graves and Ann Upton through the American West and creates a large photocollage of the Grand Canyon.

Paul Kasmin and Jasper Conran, Pembroke Studios, London, 8th May 1982, 1982