David Hockney stars in a documentary premiering tomorrow night on Rai5

Tomorrow night’s episode of Art Night, Friday, February 5, 2021, is dedicated to a master of contemporary art, David Hockney, whose works are now highly sought-after (sold at auction in 2018, his Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) became the highest paid work ever by a living artist), and to Pop Art in Italy. These are the topics of the two documentaries that will be aired in the show by Silvia De Felice, Massimo Favia and Marta Santella starting at 9:15 p.m. on Rai 5.

They start with the first-look documentary David Hockney. Michael Trabitzsch’s Rediscovered Eternity produced with Arte France, which aims to look back at David Hockney’s career as well as his long life. “I draw the world, I draw myself,” said the artist.

From the beginning, he has been involved in an ongoing dialogue with his time: he has used every format and artistic medium at his disposal, from painting to drawing, installation, set design, photography, collage, and cell phone.

Hockney, who grew up in England, escaped the constraints of small towns to live in California, worked in Paris, London and New York, then returned to England, where he still lives today. The documentary focuses on the places in his life that strongly influenced his work, using a great deal of archival footage to highlight the various stages of his work in relation to the places where he lived and worked. He and his art are as important as the places themselves in allowing us to approach an artist who, while not escaping the public gaze, is still not easy to “unlock” and portray.

Next, Art Night tells how the reflections of Pop Art reached Italy, finding fertile ground in the artists of the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo. This is recounted in Giuseppe Sansonna’s documentary entitled Ombre elettriche, produced by Rai Cultura, with scientific advice from Alessandro Masi. Protagonists are the style and art of the 1960s seen from two different points of view: Rome and London. In the foreground Franco Angeli, Tano Festa, Mario Schifano: three visionary and restless painters, linked by a strong harmony, capable of disrupting the Italian art scene of that decade. Their usual haunt is Caffè Rosati, overlooking Piazza del Popolo. Their realm is the ancient and fascinating Rome of Piazza di Spagna, Via Margutta and Piazza del Popolo. However, they are also attracted and influenced by modernity, which they discover in the hustle and bustle of Via Veneto, among hotels, offices, foreigners and white-collar workers. They are convinced that culture and art can really change the world. They want to change the gaze, subvert the imaginary, affect the real. A documentary made thanks to Teche Rai materials that give voice to the three painters, but also to other great artists of those years-Andy Warhol, Marco Ferreri, Giorgio Franchetti. Original interviews with Achille Bonito Oliva, Laura Cherubini, Paola Pitagora, Maria Angeli, Franco’s daughter and head of his archive, Otello Angeli, Anita Festa, Tano’s daughter and head of his archive, and also Leonardo Crudi, a young artist who today interprets and reworks the imagery of those years.

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David Hockney stars in a documentary premiering tomorrow night on Rai5

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