Hockney Heaven
A free movie showing at MFAH takes you behind the scenes with an art worldliving legend
Director Bruno Wollheim, left, filming David Hockney for a scene in A BiggerPictureBates News
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture
With A Bigger Picture, documentary filmmaker Bruno Wollheim was given unprecedented access to one of the art world's biggest living legends — British-born painter David Hockney.
Filmed across a span of three years, Wollheim's 2009 film (which shows at the Museum of Fine Art, Houston Tuesday night) follows the artist during a rather major moment in his career, as he sets aside his sunny, instantly-recognizable portraits of Southern California and returns to his native England town of Yorkshire.
"I'd worked with David in the past on a film called Double Portrait, took a bit of a somber view of him and his view of mankind," Wolheim laughs. "At the time, he was making psychological portrait of people in his life and, in turn, I made psychological portrait of him.
"He was starting on a new project, so I would go [to Yorkshire] every month and never know what I'd get. I was working totally in the dark, but, then again, so was he."
"Rather surprisingly though, he liked the film and he agreed to do a bio, which morphed into following him in Yorkshire."
After living in Hollywood for two and a half decades, Hockney returned to the United Kingdom in 2008 to capture the landscapes of his childhood with new eyes. Painting the countryside through every season in all types of weather, the artist ultimately creates one of the largest pictures ever made outdoors.
Gaining access to Hockney's artistic process itself was never easy, Wollheim says, even though the filmmaker and director forged a healthy friendship through the years.
"Yorkshire itself is about five hours north of London," the director explains. "He was starting on a new project, so I would go every month and never know what I'd get. I was working totally in the dark, but, then again, so was he."
While there were several trips to Hockney's stateside base in California, the film concentrates almost entirely on his time in England, where the artist has now spent the past decade painting.
"It's a very interesting film because its so unusual to get close to an artist," Wolheim says. "Most art has a very central narrative after the fact, after it's in a museum, as opposed to when it's actually being made . . . It's amazing to watch him as he's discovering and, as it were, working things out."
On Tuesday at 6:30, David Hockney: A Bigger Picture will be shown in the Brown Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The event in free and open to the public. A reception to meet the filmmaker Bruno Wollheim will follow the screening.
