' I don't think of myself as successful. Whether somebody else does is really their concern not mine. I mean, one struggles to do something better.'
David Hockney has commanded greater popular acclaim than any other contemporary British artist. There seems to be no end to the stream of exhibitions, books and articles. His life-style and the ensuing publicity sometimes make people wrongly forget that behind his colourful personality is a committed artist.
Filmed in Los Angeles and London, this programme shows Hockney at work: making etchings, drawing his friends, experimenting with paint, taking photographs as preliminary studies for his pool paintings and preparing his latest designs for the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
' I have often said that people never quite know how to place my art. You learn the lesson from Picasso, vou shouldn't be afraid. It took me a long time to realise that you can't make art outsirlp nf vour Deriod. It will always be of this period whatever you do.'
Film editor JULIAN MILLER
Produced by PETER ADAM