Hockney eyes 'new kind of picture' in London show

British artist David Hockney said he would keep working "until I fall over" as he unveiled his latest show in a gallery in London on Thursday in an exhibition blending digital photography and painting.

Wearing a linen cap, a red tie and a loose grey suit, the 77-year-old from Bradford in northern England told reporters that he was aiming for "a new kind of picture" intended to give perspective to photography.

"I'm going to go on until I fall over... Artists don't retire. What else is there to do?" he said, speaking at the Annely Juda Fine Art gallery near Oxford Street, a busy shopping thoroughfare.

Hockney, who had his first one-man show in 1963 and is best known as a leader of the Pop Art movement in the 1960s, is Britain's greatest living artist.

He still spends some time in his native Yorkshire region but is now based mostly in Los Angeles.

"I have a life there that suits me. I don't go out much. I go to bed at nine o'clock. I wake up and I go to the studio. I live in the studio really," he said.

"Playing with photography excites me. You can make a new kind of picture," he said, his voice lightening.

"I've only recently realised what digital photography can do. You can play with perspective," he added.

The collection "Painting and Photography" comprises around 40 works shot and painted in his studio in Los Angeles in 2014 and 2015, including portraits and several pictures showing a card game in progress.

"The card players goes back to Caravaggio... Card players are very good. They play and ignore you."

Hockney has used iPhones and iPads as part of his creative process although he admitted he was "too deaf" to actually have a phone call on a smartphone.

He also emphasised that there was no replacement for traditional drawing -- a process that he compares to playing chess "because you plan ahead".

"It's always back to the drawing board, even when you're drawing on a computer," he said.
Source: AFP