With clear, vivid prose, this meticulously
researched novel draws an intimate, moving portrait of the most famous living
English painter.
Born
in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After
leaving home for the Royal College of Art in London his career flourished, but
he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his
homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalised, and because of his
inclination for a figurative style of art, not sufficiently “contemporary” to
be valued. Trips to New York and California—where he would live for many years
and paint his iconic swimming pools—introduced him to new scenes and new loves,
beginning a journey that would take him through the fraught years of the AIDS
epidemic.