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The Beverly Hills Housewife: Hockney’s Californian Muse and the World Beyond the Pool

By (author) James Cahill

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normal price: R 809.95

Price: R 728.95

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| book description |

A panoramic view of 1960s LA and Californian culture through the eyes of artist and subject: the youthful fascination of David Hockney and the knowing gaze of enigmatic socialite Betty Freeman. In the summer of 1966, David Hockney paid a visit to a wealthy Los Angeles art collector. Her name was Betty Freeman. He had intended to paint her swimming pool, but was rapidly entranced by Freeman herself. Hockney, soon to embark on a series of Los Angeles paintings that would become icons of their time and place, immortalized Freeman in Beverly Hills Housewife (1966â€“67), a sunlit vision of the collector on the terrace of her modernist home. Evoking the light and easy glamour of 1960s Los Angeles, the painting is one of the artistâ€™s most seductive works, but it has always carried an air of mystery. Who was the woman in pink? Like Hockney driving through the Hollywood Hills, James Cahill meanders â€“ interweaving the artistâ€™s discovery of Los Angeles with Freemanâ€™s own evolution from aspiring pianist to photographer, philanthropist and collector â€“ but never loses focus on the art. Oscillating between art history and anecdote, this is an eclectic study of an artist, his enigmatic muse and the beginning of a friendship that would shape the course of each of their lives.