美国国家公共电台 NPR At 79, David Hockney Isn't Keen On Parties, But Still Paints Every Day

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The painter David Hockney once said, quote, "it is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work."

A major retrospective opens in London tomorrow at the Tate Britain museum, giving visitors the chance to see 60 years' worth of the English artist's doings. Hockney is one of the best-known contemporary artists. His work sells for millions of dollars. NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg met him at his studio in Los Angeles.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE 1: Up, up, up a winding 2 canyon 3 road in the Hollywood Hills, a neighborhood studded with stars' homes, Hockney's studio has five easels, some comfy armchairs, white walls brightened with his works.

What are these marks on your floor?

DAVID HOCKNEY: Cigarettes.

STAMBERG: Huh - you put them down on the floor?

HOCKNEY: Yeah, yeah.

STAMBERG: But you have some ashtrays 4. Oop - there you go again.

HOCKNEY: Yeah, yeah. I always stub it out with my foot.

STAMBERG: Well, to make sure it's really out.

HOCKNEY: Yeah, yeah.

STAMBERG: The floor is carpeted with Davidoff cigarettes, chain-smoked three-quarters down, then stubbed into dark brown smears 5. There are some splotches of blue paint, more paint on the almost-80-year-old artist's khaki pants. His cardigan is Nile green - under it, a blue I can't name, more muted than the vivid blues 6, greens, oranges, fuchsias in his paintings, colors that look backlit.

HOCKNEY: That's "Mulholland Drive." This is the "Hawthorne Blossom."

STAMBERG: Hockney turns the pages of a brand new Taschen book. "A Bigger Book," it's called. Two feet long, a foot and a half wide - $2,500 with reproductions of 450 of his works. LA swimming pools...

HOCKNEY: The pool with rain.

STAMBERG: ...Palm trees, flowers, his dachshunds, portraits of rich and not-rich friends, landscapes, designs for opera sets.

HOCKNEY: That's "The Magic Flute 7."

STAMBERG: He won't linger over any of them, doesn't answer questions, keeps turning, leafing through a life's worth of works - loving the book, the clarity of the reproductions. It's art he made from age 16 on. He paints every day. He probably can't not paint, not be making. We sit wreathed in cigarette smoke.

Tell me about the Tate show. Is that - will that be the largest retrospective you've had?

HOCKNEY: Well, I think so. Yes, yeah - I mean, larger than 20 years ago because there's 20 years' more...

STAMBERG: More work.

HOCKNEY: ...Work.

STAMBERG: Will there be a big party for them in London?

HOCKNEY: I'm not that keen on parties. I'm too deaf for them. I don't like all the fuss being made. I like doing the pictures. That's what I like.

STAMBERG: You find it's isolating 8, losing your hearing?

HOCKNEY: Well, yes. Yes, it is really.

STAMBERG: He once was a lively fixture 9 at gatherings 10 - no more.

HOCKNEY: I just have to leave and go home, have a sit in a quiet bedroom. And that's what I do. And then I read. And - I mean, that's my life now. I mean, that's what it's going to be.

STAMBERG: A portrait of the artist as a not-so-young man, still with a twinkle in his eyes, making joyous 11 pictures, so vibrant 12 and alive. What creative person doesn't question whether he, she has anything left to say? David Hockney goes into his studio every day and has never-ending conversations on canvas, paper, iPads. And the world of art lovers keeps listening.

In Southern California, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.