Loving David Hockney

I was so sad last week at the news of the death of the astonishing British-born artist David Hockney, and by way of my tribute to him here is the story of how his magnificent photocollage of Theresa Russell in Insignificance came about:

I have loved David Hockney since I first saw his pictures as a teenager in the early 1970s, but in 1984, when I was remarkably lucky to produce the film Insignificance with my great friends, director Nicolas Roeg, movie star Theresa Russell and producer Jeremy Thomas, an added perk of what was an altogether wonderful experience was that Nic wanted David Hockney to create a photocollage of Theresa naked in the famous Marilyn Monroe calendar pose (Theresa was playing Marilyn in the film).

Hockney seemed to jump at the chance of working with Nic and Theresa and I was lucky enough to spend several hours over a couple of days with him, Nic, Theresa and others as they first discussed that the collage should be anachronistic, because Nic loves playing with time, and that it should echo the Marilyn calendar but not be bound by it.

Meeting Hockney was magical. He was charming, intelligent and very funny. I was already a total fan (a few years earlier I’d loved the documentary about him, A Bigger Splash) but to see him discussing various Picasso references with Nic as a basis for the collage was inspiring.

I can’t remember the specific Picasso artwork he borrowed from, but in terms of the female nudity I remember him saying of the Picasso, in his inimitable Bradford accent, “I love how he shows the bum here…and the other bit here.” He may have said “front bit” but I think it was “other.” I shall miss him enormously, as I do my dear friend Nic Roeg.

For the record, four large museum-scale copies of this artwork exist in private collections. The piece has featured in Hockney retrospectives in the past.