David Hockney is helping to put the ’secret’ Yorkshire Wolds on the tourist map. But one of the artist’s friends is looking at the bigger picture, and urging caution. John Woodcock reports
Never underestimate what a paintbrush can do for an area’s profile. Look at Van Gogh and Provence, at what LS Lowry did for industrial Lancashire, and how the Suffolk-Essex border has become Constable Country.
Now is art about to bring the world to the Wolds? Through David Hockney and two major London exhibitions, a relatively undiscovered landscape is suddenly enjoying unprecedented recognition.
In one case, it received a literally monumental plug. The star of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition was Hockney’s Bigger Trees Near Warter, a painting 40 feet wide and 15 feet high which filled the end wall of the grandest gallery in Burlington House, Piccadilly.
Not far away, five more of his scenes from the Wolds feature at Tate Britain, accompanying the Bradford-born artist’s selection and analysis of Turner watercolours.
Even within Hockney’s home county, many might struggle to find on a map his “painting zones” around the likes of Thwing, Kilham, Langtoft and Millington. But the Destination Management Organisation – meaning the tourism department – of Visit Hull and East Yorkshire is seeking to exploit the Hockney connection much further afield.
“Just a couple of hours away by train from London lies the real inspiration behind the latest paintings from one of Britain’s most versatile and popular artists of the 20th century. Bring Hockney’s landscapes to life,” says the material promoting weekend breaks involving 13 hotels in the region, and with dinner, bed and breakfast deals starting at £35 per room per night per couple.
If Holmfirth can benefit from Last of the Summer Wine, and elsewhere in Yorkshire capitalises on Heartbeat and Herriot, why shouldn’t the East Riding hitch itself to Hockney, at 70? Despite the Wolds Way footpath, strange hidden valleys, and big horizons which the painter has likened to the American West, the area has barely emerged from obscurity.
For some people, that’s part of its appeal. Hockney’s friend, fellow-artist and gallery owner Tony Hogan, has a familiar dilemma. He’s all for attracting people to the Wolds, and has a vested interest in doing so. On the other hand, he’s concerned that fame by association could see them invaded by hordes with easels and cameras. Would this be counter-productive? The unspoiled, isolated nature of a place which inspires Hockney could be undermined by over-exposure of his work there.
Although Hogan has raised the issue with him, he’s not saying how he reacted. “We want to share the area with others,” says Hogan. “but it’s about striking the right balance. At the moment this is the secret Yorkshire, almost.
“From an artist’s viewpoint, the Wolds are wonderfully peaceful, and notable for their clean light, open skies, great sweeps, and beautiful woodland. The vistas are forever changing. No artist would want to lose that and have their time and space interfered with. There’s a fine line between intrusion and encouraging others to experience the area.”
Hogan is a relative newcomer himself, having previously worked mainly on the moors and coastline around Whitby and Scarborough before “discovering” the chalk uplands to the south through a business venture a decade ago.
He and Hockney have strong links. Hogan, who is 61, grew up in Saltaire, where the 1853 Gallery, at Salts Mill, is a focal point for Hockney’s paintings. Both studied at Bradford Art College, and at his gallery, in Kilham, Hogan sells the computerised art of Hockney’s sister, Margaret.
He also teaches and runs residential art courses from his cottage-cum-studio in the village, attracting pupils from around the world. There
have been occasions when they’ve been at a location and Hockney has been working nearby, such as in Woldgate Woods, the subject of his series at the Tate, entitled The East Yorkshire Landscapes.
Hockney first experienced them as a youth doing summer jobs on farms, and began to rediscover their striking variations during visits from California to members of his family in Bridlington. He now has a home in the town, and over the last four years has been absorbed by the space and light of the Wolds.
Even an untutored eye can appreciate the potential for him in dipping lanes flanked by
T-shaped telegraph poles at skewed angles, and, across the way, steep hillsides in agricultural shades of gold, green, fawn, and brown.
His scenes have included Garrowby Hill and Sledmere, initially using watercolour, a medium which allowed him to work quickly in the open air and capture the changing light and its effect upon the land.
Returning to the same locales, Hockney is now approaching the subject in oil, while still painting primarily in situ.
An explanatory note from the Tate describes the scene: “Loading his pick-up truck with easels, canvases and paints, Hockney drives to his
chosen destination and sets up his tools. Then
he sits for a couple of hours looking at the landscape, absorbing the view, before picking up a paintbrush.
“This quiet but intent observation is followed by feverish activity to capture the essence of what he sees. Hockney conveys the land and light in electric colour, bringing to the canvases his love of place, freshly observed and infused by decades of experience and the memories that it conjures of childhood days”.
His work for an entire wall of the Royal Academy was a complex undertaking, and made up of 50 smaller canvases painted outside. They became a single giant with the help of modern technology which he embraces with enthusiasm because it can defeat many of the practical problems encountered by previous generations of artists.
You can’t blame the tourist board for wanting to share some of this with a wider audience. But how? Hogan, an artist for 46 years, was at one time also involved in the marketing of jeans, so he knows plenty about the pulling power of celebrity. Hockney, however, is not about to play in that game. His work is all-consuming.
“At 70 his energy levels are phenomenal. He’s working harder than ever. It’s obsessional. The man’s a genius and the last thing he needs is people trying to find him and pointing cameras
at him,” says Hogan.
No-one is encouraging that, but early indications are that the Hockney link is stirring interest in the area and raising its profile.
Paul Whymant owns Tickton Grange Hotel, near Beverley, one of those participating in the promotion, and is also a board member of
Visit Hull and East Yorkshire.
He said: “It’s early days and no-one is expecting tourism miracles overnight, but people are talking about David Hockney and his presence in the area. We’re hoping for a spin-off from that, and the attention he’s been receiving, and so far much of the interest is coming from within the Yorkshire region.
“We have to admit that this has not been the most fashionable area of the county, perhaps because we’re on the fringes. But people from relatively nearby are discovering that the Wolds are a lovely area, and that East Yorkshire generally has much to offer. And you don’t have to be an artist to admire the light.”
