David Hockney
Pear blossom Highway
11th-18th April 1986
photographic collage
77x112 1/2 in.
Context
David Hockney is a Bradford born photographer born in 1937. He attended art school in London before moving to LA in the 1960s where his most famous works were created. Hockney began working in photography, creating photo collages he called joiners. During the time the photograph was created, is was near to the time of the Chernobyl disaster. This was a nuclear disaster that occurred at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine in April 1986. An explosion and fire released radioactive particles into the atmosphere which then spread over most of Europe. Pear blossom Highway was created in California in a very open space. With further research into this piece, I have discovered that this piece is not just about an empty road, but it is about driving around. The driver and passenger see the road from different perspectives. The driver notices all the road signs whereas the passenger can choose what they want to see. This is reflected by the two sides of the road. One side shows the drivers perspective with all the road signs whereas the passenger doesn't see that and can choose to see what they wish. The picture is about driving without the car actually being in it.
Content
In the piece of work we can see a highway depicted (hence the name of the work). It is a surreal landscape piece and is slightly abstract. It wouldn't be classed as completely abstract due to the fact you can make out the image fairly well, it just has a slightly distorted feel to it. From a first look, you can identify that it is just a highway with several typical signs, bare trees and litter along the road side. The work represents the bareness of the area and the lack of respect shown through the litter along the roadside showing that the lack of natural beauty and greens makes people think they can get rid of there litter there as it won't affect the aesthetics of the area. The title of this piece is 'Pear blossom Highway'. The term 'Pear blossom' has the connotations of 'sweet' 'flowery' 'attractive' so you would have thought the piece would show a landscape full of vegetation and flowers, but, when we look at the work we see something completely different. I think that this is a realistic depiction of the modern world with the litter just thrown out of someone's car window onto the road side. The whole image has been distorted and each little part of it is slightly exaggerated to give the image a slightly more surreal look. I think the main theme of the work is to show the juxtaposition between the baron, unloved landscape and the well formed road and signs.
Form
You could argue that this piece is slightly abstract as the lines of all the squares are easily identified in the piece. This piece is created using both organic and geometric shapes as the complete photo shows the organic shapes such as the trees and mountains in the background, but, the geometric shapes (in this case the squares) are used in the 'joiner process' when putting the final piece together. In this piece, the signs and the tress are definitely the main focus as they are the parts that you are immediately drawn to when first looking at the image. The elements such as the mountains in the background and the pieces of litter such as the cans at the bottom in the foreground are less obvious to notice at first glance. From the colours and the use of highlighted light areas, we can suggest that this image was taken during the day, more specifically noon when the sun is at it's peak. As the piece shows an outdoor scene we know that this light is natural as it is produced by the sun. There are many implied lines also shown in the piece. An implied line is a line that is almost suggested to be there but doesn't depict a typical straight line. Particularly along the roadside, usually this road would be more or less straight but after the joiner process, we can see more of an implied line along the roadside. The horizon is also an example of this as it is not a true straight line but it implies that the horizon runs along it. There is no true repetition shown in this piece but the use of the repeated bare and lonely trees emphasises the overall baroness and emptiness of this area. There is depth shown in this piece from the scale of the objects included in it. The use of perspective in this image tries to show how the whole scene is going further and further into the distance. The one point perspective used allows a centre point to be used which then helps with scale, proportion and depth of the image. The angle is just straight on. The main subject of the road as it fades into the background is positioned in the centre of the image to emphasise it. The background is minimal but effective in the overall image. It shows a majority of bright blue sky and the scale of the mountains along the horizon line shows how much depth this photograph is trying to portray. The range of tones from darks to lights helps to exaggerate the juxtaposition of this image. The dull, dark shades on the landscape are juxtaposed with the bright, light shades of the sky. If the landscape showed a lush green environment, the juxtaposition wouldn't show through as much so I think that the depression of the land is really important in this image. This piece shows an asymmetrical balance of elements in the image as the objects are not distributed evenly and are not shown to be repeated either side of a mirror line. This is effective as it tries to portray a more natural scene and composition, not artificially set up specifically for a photo to be taken. The contrast between the scales and proportions of the elements is strong as the signs in some cases are as tall as the trees. The contrast of the landscape and the sky, as I mentioned earlier, also emphasises the juxtaposition within the image.
Process
Chromogenic print was the medium used to create this work. This is a process where two chemicals are reacted together to create the colour dyes that make up a photographic image. Chromogenic colour images are composed of three main dye layers. Cyan, magenta and yellow. These three together form a full colour image. It has been presented in a layout called 'Hockney Joiner'. This is where multiple photographs are taken of the same setting or scene where he then arranged a patchwork to create a composite image. Due to the photographs being taken from slightly different angles and perspective and also at slightly different times. The result has an affinity with cubism which was one of Hockney's main aims as it tries to express the way human vision works.
Mood
The work intrigues me due to the abstract and surrealist element to it. I really like the composition and the way the piece has been put together in the joining process where true lines cannot be depicted. I think the intrigue is stimulated due to the interesting media and the fact that the piece is slightly different and not a widely seen technique. I think the juxtaposition of the colours and the different variations of forms help to make this piece interesting. I think that it depicts a positive atmosphere as at first glance it shows a bright sunny and light setting. But, when you investigate further into the image, you can see all the litter and the emptiness and baroness of the surroundings which has an effect on the overall atmosphere shown in the piece.
Perspective
Perspective is the way in which objects appear to the eye.
Surrealism and Cubism
Picasso has also created works like this, using the technique cubism. Picasso and many other painters felt like the were out of the trade when photography was introduced. Why would people need artists if photographers could produce the same works? This was the beginning of surrealism. When photography first began, there was no such editing programme around such as photoshop meaning that photographers could only capture the settings and objects that were in front of them from only one particular angle. Artists used this to their advantage and began to create pieces that included the paintings of one image from several angles. As the object they were painting was in front of them, they could move position and incorporate that angle of the image into their piece. This was where surrealism started.
Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. This movement was deemed to be pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Cubism artwork is created when objects are analysed and broken up to then be reassembled in an abstract form. This is used so the objects weren't depicted just from one viewpoint, the subject can be viewed from multiple viewpoints to show the object in greater context. Also known as multiple perspective, this form of work was influenced by Picasso's technique of constructing sculpture from separate elements.
Braque
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Picasso |
