This is book shows several of his masterpieces and is definitivelly worth of buying. A sense of humour is hidden in his photographs...

I recieved this book last christmas as a gift after been totally inspired by his work in various galleries and musems for some years. This book is beautifully presented covering the different subject matters including london, north england, nudes. Looking at these pictures gives one an overall idea what a great talent he was and is one of the gretest photographers of all time. If you are a lover of fine art photography or just enjoy great photography this book is most defently worth buying. A brilliant book.

This book really shows how amazing Bill Brandt was as both a photographer and an artist. His work dives into so many areas from landscapes, to documentry work, to stunning figure studies. His use of high contrast is haunting in the best possible way. I was particularly pleased with the way the book covers his entire body of work.

If you want a better understanding of David Hockney buy this book. It is a wonderful display of illustrations and information of a great British artist.

"David Hockney: Paintings" is well written and organized to foster a greater understanding of how Hockney evolves over the course of his career. Moreover, you will be impressed by the outstanding quality of the the black & white and color illustrations.

Authors Paul Melia and Ulrich Luckhardt provide the reader an excellent insight to the artistic thoughts of David Hockney. It also studies and explains the tremendous global popularity of the artist. This is a great book to have in the house.

Being a tremendous fan of Hockney's work, I was delighted to find this beautiful and informative book.

I liked the chronological organization as the book traced the artist's development over the years. I always find this such an interesting perspective, seeing how an artist's vision changes and evolves. And I also liked the way that the relationship between Hockney's life and his art is explored.

The illustrations were grand too!

A worthwhile book and a good study of Hockney, his life, and his works.

I was more than pleasantly surprised by the extremely high quality of the reproductions. The book is split up in six chapters covering the main artistic phases in Hockney's live and giving a lot of information about his paintings.
I find it extremely interesting not just to see Hockney's work but also to read the details on the creative process leading up to the finished painting. A wonderful book!

Keith had a fascinating life... although he and I went to the same school, I feel everyone will identify with his message. Read it!

I did not understand nor really enjoy Keith Harings work until I read his journal. His thought processes that develope in the book talk about what he was trying to acomplish with his work. Knowing the angle that he was working from gave me a much deeper appreciation for his work. I think this is a very valuable book in understand Keith's views and philosophies behind his work.

Keith Haring is unbelievably talented. He is one of my favorite artist's--and in his journals I got to understand where some of his compositions came from---If you like his work and you want to know where some of his ideas came from. Check out this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE BLUE GUITAR is one of the most sensitive 'collaborations' or 'appropriations' or 'responsive inspirations' that has been published. Wallace Stevens wrote THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR in 1936 as a response to the famous painting by Pablo Picasso called 'The Old Guitarist 1903'. David Hockney discovered the poem and readdressed the Picasso in 1976 and the result of his encounter resulted in the 20 etchings he created. The work of all three artists is presented in this small book which feels more like a bibliophile edition than a standard text. No need for explantion or essay or evaluation, this sensitve little tome speaks volumes. A stunning publication.

This book is a wonderfull display of british artwork, it is also extremely informative and a trully usefull and pleasurable book to have. I can not recomend it highly enough.

Hockney is one of the contemporary artists that helped us most to love colours in the house. He must be considered not only as a painter but as a decorator. His houses (including swimming pools...) are artistic masterpieces as well as his paintings. This big book is full of facts. Unfortunately, Hockney did not dare to do the same exercise as Christian Lacroix in its own autobiography. Is he too old, now? Was he tired when he made this book? David, do it again (publish a new edition) with some more energy. While waiting for this future edition, buy both books: Christian Lacroix "Pieces of a pattern" and David Hockney. These two "kings of happiness" will bring joy and happiness to the house.

I have been a fan of David Hockney's for many many years and was delighted to find this book. He writes in an understated, easy way about his art and about modern art in general.

Two of the sections were particularly interesting: "Art versus the Art World" and "The Power of Art".

In the book, Hockney explained how places and his personal experiences have influenced his art over the years. He talks about how he is incorporating photography into his work and feels that it is an artist's responsibility to be open to new forms of expression. He says he is an "artist who is always working". I think he is always experimenting too, with different methods of expressing his artistic vision.

He said he asssumes that if he is interested in painting something, others will be interested as well. I loved this viewpoint....in other words, he creates for himself.

This was a lovely book---especially all of the GORGEOUS color reproductions which traced the Hockney's evolution and his journeys.

This is an interesting book because it explains the discovery of ways of seeing, and in the process of explaining alters the way the reader sees art.

The challenge of pop art or abstract art is that to the uninitiated it seems gimmicky, and one often goes 'you've got to be kidding?' But with this wonderful exploration of the different ways that art and photography are ways of capturing a point of view, not a reproduction of a point of view. And more importantly, how Mr. Hockney comes to these expressions of point of view you get a glimpse of not only an interpretation of art, but the process of art. I love words and the essays are as magnificent as his art in their clarity and honesty. The section on his photo montages are amazing.

David Hockney is a great artist and it's touching that he made a whole book about the little dogs that are his friends. But since the whole book is really just two dogs in different poses, don't purchase it unless you're a true dachshund lover. I bought this book as a gift for my relatives who own dachs, and they oohed and ahhed over it.

I love this book!! Having had 2 red smooth dachshunds, these pictures looked like they could have been from my home. All dachshund lovers will truly enjoy looking at this.

I thought it was awesome! A lot of the drawings looked just like my tree red smooths. I was really impressed with how he sees his dachshunds and all of our dachshunds in art. If your not a person who lives and breathes doxies, you may not like it.

The one other customer review connected with this book is incorrect - this is not a step by step drawing book - it is a history of fashion drawing in Vogue Magazine.

I am a graduating fashion design student in The Art Institute . I have searched for a complete drawing book throughout my education. And, I found this book very handy and useful, and decided to have it in my little library. This book starts with complete course of education on basic drawing of a figure, and gives you step by step instruction of how to end up a beautiful figure of your own, even though you are not sure about your drawing skills. Once you get your basic figure done, it shows you how to put the other items together, draw the details. It gives more than enough information and pictures about coloring and rendering which is the most important section to make your design come through. The section I liked most in this book was about drawing the hands and face which has given me trouble during my education. After reviewing the book and applying the techniques , I relaized how easy it is to do it my own, instead of swiping someone else's sketch.And also, the rendering techniques and information about it was very useful to finish up my sketches. I highly recommend this book to any person in any level of drawing skills, who is interested in drawing Fashion figures.I have had a big advantage of it , why shouldn't you?

Hockney never ceases to amaze us with his abundant energy and inventiveness. One need only look at a Hockney--always a wealth of colors and quirky gestures--to brighten any day.

To quote the author: "This is not a step-by-step guide todrawing - steps would only be useful if the destination were known. It is for individual journeys and the flights of steps would be as numerous as its readers." (p.54)

The author advocates learning to draw by copying the Masters, and the book's copious illustrations consist largely of the author's own competent renderings of details from the drawings of van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Goya, Durer, Klee and numerous other greats - all for the purpose of illustrating various ideas concerning materials, techniques and subject matter.

The book is essentially a very loosely structured compendium of ideas and concepts. Nothing covered in any depth, but on the whole very stimulating, thought-provoking and far-reaching.

This book demands a great deal of self-motivation and initiative to be used effectively. But given the author's thesis that you learn by copying the Masters (and apparently they all copied each other!), the book provides excellent guidance on who to seek out and what to look for. They all favoured particular drawing materials and each excelled at achieving certain effects. ... but this one does offer a unique approach that is free of gimmicks.

By the way, David Hockney wrote only the introduction, and except for advocating the copying method, adds nothing to the book. END