Harry Styles: a ‘candid’ portrait by legendary artist David Hockney
This was precisely his approach when, in May 2022, Harry Styles he went to his studio in Normandy and posed on a wicker chair, ready to become his new subject. For two days, Hockney tried to capture the exact shades of the pop star’s red and yellow striped cardigan, the indigo color of her jeans, the string of pearls around her neck, and her unmistakable tousled hair. However, his goal was to capture the essence of the person in front of him. “At the time, I didn’t fully realize how famous he was.“, he admits. “He was just another person coming into the studio.”
Mutual understanding was immediately established between them, which was probably facilitated by the fact that Stiles is a Hockney fan. For the cover story USA fashion in December 2020, he wore Bode trousers that featured a hand-painted mascot portrait of Hockney by artist Aayushi Kwalaa. It is also difficult to imagine the wonder of a young, energetic Englishman discovering the sunny emotions of California – a theme that often returns in his songs – without Hockney’s picturesque precedent. “He reinvented the way we look at the world,” Styles says. “It is a real privilege to be portrayed by him.“
The presentation of the portrait to the public will open the second chapter of Hockney’s exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Drawing from life, which opened in February 2020 but closed a few weeks later due to the pandemic. Enriched with a new section dedicated to the artist’s creative impulses during lockdown, the exhibition returns on November 2, with a portrait of Stiles as its centerpiece. “The whole world was closed, and the exhibition stood there in the dark,” recalls curator Sarah Howgate. “It’s nice to know he’ll have a different life.”
Stiles’ painting may bring the glamor of the stars, but the main attraction of the event remains the quiet brilliance of Hockney’s portraiture. As we soon learn, what makes his work vibrate is theirs. honestybe it the famous double portrait of Ossie Clarke and Celia Birtwell, painted between 1970 and 1971, reflecting the tensions simmering beneath the surface; or the seated figures who filled a 2016 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, which included his sister Margaret and the late comedian Barry Humphries, among others. The way Hockney depicts the human figure can be playful, kaleidoscopic, sometimes whimsical, but above all, it is always frank.