Alan Davie & David Hockney: Early Works

About

Organised by Hepworth Wakefield, Early Works will bring together around 45 paintings, collages and drawings by Davie and Hockney, spanning 1948–1965. It will trace the parallel paths of these key figures, and reveal shared preoccupations with passion, love, sex and poetry as their work oscillated between figuration and abstraction. Early Works at Towner is the first major display of works by both artists on the South Coast.

Early Works includes figurative works made by both artists at the start of their careers, including self-portraits produced when Hockney and Davie were both 16 years old. Self-portraits and photographs throughout the exhibition will show the development of each artist’s public persona at a time when contemporary art was becoming a central part of popular culture – artists appeared in films, were interviewed on television and featured in the new colour Sunday supplements. Both artists cultivated distinctive looks, exploring differing but connected notions of masculinity and identity. Both shrugged off labels, Davie refusing to be dubbed an ‘Abstract Expressionist’, and Hockney similarly eschewing the term ‘Pop artist’.

Themes of poetry, love and eroticism explored by both artists will be examined through paintings including Hockney’s celebrated We Two Boys Together Clinging (1961) and Davie’s Glory (1957). The visitor will see how both artists pushed and tested the painted surface, often incorporating coded symbolic text and abstracted figures to create new visual languages and passionate painterly expressions. The exhibition will also explore work from the 1960s when both artists combined interests in non-western culture with contemporary influences including American abstract painting and advertising.

Book Tickets

Guide Prices

FREE for Towner Members
FREE for under 18s
£11 - Standard Ticket + Gift Aid
£10 - Standard Ticket
£10 - Concessionary Ticket + Gift Aid
£9 - Concessionary Ticket
£6 - Art Fund Member + Gift Aid
£5 - Art Fund Member

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Map & Directions

Alan Davie & David Hockney: Early Works

Type:Exhibition

Towner Art Gallery, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4JJ
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Tel01323 434670

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TownerTowner Eastbourne, EastbourneCollecting and exhibiting contemporary art for nearly 100 years, Towner Eastbourne presents an ambitious and high quality programme of historic, modern and contemporary art.

Eastbourne Visitor Centre, Welcome Building, Compton Street, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4BP

01323 415415

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