DAVID HOCKNEY: STAGE WORKS

Chicago : May 4 - June 29, 2002
New York : February 19 - April 13, 2002

Richard Gray Gallery, New York, presents an exhibition of works by David Hockney. The show is comprised of 31 works - paintings, gouaches, drawings, watercolors and collages - all from the artist's personal collection, related to Hockney's stage set and costume designs for the Metropolitan Opera Company's original 1981 production of Parade, a triple bill comprised of Satie's ballet Parade, Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges. The show at Richard Gray Gallery is scheduled to coincide with the Met's revival which runs through March. David Hockney's passion for painting, music and the theater come together in inevitable symbiosis in his designs for the opera. The vitality, color and sense of humor so much a part of his painting, permeate his work for the theater.

"While working on Parade, the relationship between Hockney's painting and stage design became extremely close and at times, these aspects of his creativity were inseparable. The sketches and gouaches made for Parade strongly affected his painting. That project was a liberating experience... Thanks to Parade, an energetic dialogue began between his studio and the theater projects; one nourished the other... To distinguish the exuberantly executed paintings that were by-products of Parade from Hockney's production designs can be daunting... Many of his designs are fully-realized paintings." (Martin Friedman, Hockney Paints the Stage, (London: Thames & Hudson), 1983, p. 45.)