Most of the obituaries and tributes to David Hockney will, I imagine, focus primarily on his extraordinary craft and brilliance as an artist. Perhaps they might also mention his brilliance as a communicator (he was such a fine writer and speaker). But there was something else rather unique about him too. He was also strikingly honest about the tricks/techniques artists use and used to paint. His book Secret Knowledge is a rather wonderful detective work into how renaissance and Dutch golden age painters used glass and mirrors to help them master perspective. It's a pretty compelling case (see this video clip from a BBC doc he made alongside the book👇) though I'm sure some art historians will raise their eyebrows. Many will be aghast at the notion that greats like Vermeer might have been using lenses and camera obscuras to help them draw and paint. As if it were in some way "cheating". But Hockney was so self-evidently brilliant he was one of the few people who could document this without anyone gainsaying his own talent. There are very few artists, living or dead, who have this degree of self-confidence. Not just to know their craft, but to be bracingly honest about how it works. One other who comes to mind is Paul Simon: not just an extraordinary musician but is also an extraordinary communicator about the tricks and techniques of how to write and perform music. For many great artists, the temptation is to cloak their crafts in mystery, like a member of the magic circle. Hockney wasn't having any of it. So yes, he was a legend in all the obvious ways. But also in a few other less obvious ways as well. RIP.

Whenever I think of David Hockney I remember when he sold out to the worst paper in the country but so completely half-arsed the job that it was indistinguishable from a deliberate act of sabotage.

Musician and painter Joni Mitchell (with artist David Hockney...RIP) #WomensArt

Many people nowadays read what the algorithm suggests to them, but there is nothing like walking in a bookshop, browsing the shelves, and casually stumbling upon a niche book you never knew you needed, but which will change your life.

This should apply to everyone.

"What shall I do with all my books?" - Read them, or if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition. - Sir Winston Churchill.

The best way to begin a weekend is to stop in a bookshop and buy a book. Or two.

Relief of a honeybee in the Tomb of Seti I (KV17), Valley of the Kings, c. 1290-1279 B.C. #WorldBeeDay 🐝 According to Egyptian mythology, when the sun god Re wept, his tears became honey bees upon touching the ground. Thus, the bee was not merely an industrious creature but a sacred symbol of life and divine grace. In temple reliefs, such as those of King Seti I; bees appear as part of royal iconography, embodying Lower Egypt, industry, and the pharaoh’s duty to uphold Ma'at, the cosmic order. The bee’s presence also served as a metaphor for the kingdom as a harmonious hive, thriving under the pharaoh’s guiding hand.

The best way to begin a weekend is to stop in a bookshop and buy a book. Or two.

😬

“Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.” ― Boris Pasternak

What children's books used to be like. (From 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑎 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛, by the great Edward Ardizzone.)

The Bookaholic. (Sue Macartney-Snape)

The best way to begin a weekend is to stop by a bookshop and buy a book. Or two.

A close look at a page from William Morris’s News from Nowhere (1892), produced in the spirit of the Kelmscott Press tradition, where text and image are inseparable works of art. #WilliamMorris #SpecialCollections

I do *not* want an AI "summary" of an email, or a book, or a life. I do not want an AI summary of a winter sky, or my father's hands, or the hope in my child's eyes. I do not want an AI summary of the human heart, or the first little shiver of lust, or the long good work of love.

🌿 Gardening advice from 1640 🌿 A look inside The Expert Gardener, filled with practical knowledge, and beautiful craftsmanship!

Gargoyles reading books

🇫🇮Statue en Finlande intitulée : « Lis même si tu te noies » La lecture est le secret du progrès et de l’élévation des peuples.

Potentially the most gangster interview response in the world of literature