“The indentations paradoxically widen the sense of space and invite all sort of fresh lines of sight. Far from cutting corners, I was adding them.”
—David Hockney
An unusual presentation of amalgamated viewpoints, Focus Moving embodies David Hockney’s ongoing investigation into the notion of perspective. The irregular hexagonal composition portrays a snapshot of the artist’s studio, with the acrylic on canvas work Focus Moving (2018), surrounded by a variety of trolleys and stools photographed from different angles. By utilising a photogrammetric software to combine hundreds of single snapshots from various viewpoints, Hockney created three-dimensional approximations for individual objects which he then grouped into one illusionary space. The combined multiple-media image, what Hockney describes as a “photographic drawing”, creates a hyper-realistic illusionary snapshot of the artist’s studio that encourages our eye to roam freely in the constructed space. This technique was an evolution from Hockney's earlier Polaroid photo-collages; however, rather than abutting various snapshots, this later technique allows the photographs to seamlessly blend, creating a sometimes-uncanny yet ultimately more truthful depiction of space.
Focus Moving plays on Hockney’s seminal lithographic series of the 1980s entitled Moving Focus, which was inspired by the Cubist aversion to single-point perspective. Defying Renaissance-era ideas about single-point perspective, Hockney turned to the theories of observation promulgated by Father Pavel Florensky’s, an early twentieth-century Azerbaijani mathematical prodigy who challenged contemporary notions of binary perspective. Hockney aligned with Florensky’s theory that humans do not see from a single perspective as a camera does. Instead, we observe the world binocularly from two eyes while our bodies are always in constant motion, constructing our actual senses of the world across time from multiple vantage points. The sentiment is directly reflected in Focus Moving, as Hockney subverts the traditional binary of the camera’s one point perspective by layering multiple camera shots to reflect this more “human” experience of looking.
“Someone said I was cutting corners, but actually, I’ve added two… Why didn’t I think of this twenty years ago?”
—David HockneyNot only does the idea of “real perspective” challenge the way we see two-dimensional space, it also shapes the physical canvas, transcending both subject matter and medium. In 2017 Hockney undertook a new direction in his works by cutting off the two lower corners of his canvases to create a hexagonally-shaped frame which, in turn, gives the illusion of a widened picture and opens fresh vantages spreading out in every direction. The idea was first explored in The Brass Tacks Triptych – three hexagonal images inspired by Fra Angelico’s 1426 San Marco Annunciation familiar to Hockney from his Bradford Grammar School days. With its hexagonal shape, Hockney’s triptych flips the tightening one-point recession of space, breathing new life into the now well-ventilated openness of reverse perspective. As the artist explained: “The indentations paradoxically widen the sense of space and invite all sort of fresh lines of sight. Far from cutting corners, I was adding them.”
Focus Moving also features in Hockney’s 2018 photomontages Inside It Opens Up As Well and Seven Trollies, Six and a Half Stools, Six Portraits, Eleven Paintings, and Two Curtains. This earlier photographic drawing depicts twelve of the artist’s famous hexagonal paintings from 2017 that showcase a vast range of subjects including the Grand Canyon, east Yorkshire, the terrace of his home in Hollywood Hills, and imaginary surreal landscapes. Uniting Hockney’s most seminal explorations into perspective, Hockney’s photographic drawings such as Focus Moving epitomise the artist’s long-standing refute against the hegemony of conventional perspective transcending medium and subject matter.
