Mornists and Mavericks by Mart Gayford review – Ban, Frd, Hockney and the London paters | Art and sign books | The Guardian

Contents:

• MART GAYFORD
• MAN WH A BLUE SRF: ON STG FOR A PORTRA BY LUCIAN FRD, BY MART GAYFORD
• NEW BOOK – LOVE LUCIAN!
• MART GAYFORD
• MORNISTS AND MAVERICKS BY MART GAYFORD REVIEW – BAN, FRD, HOCKNEY AND THE LONDON PATERS
• SPRG CANNOT BE CANCELLED BY DAVID HOCKNEY AND MART GAYFORD – REVIEW
• BOOKS BY MART GAYFORD

MART GAYFORD

Mart Gayford studied philosophy at Cambridge, and art history at the Courtld Instute of London Universy.

Mart Gayford is married, wh two children, and liv Cambridge, England. He n be found on Instagram at @gayfordmart. Senr Rearch Fellow the History of ArtMart Gayford is a Senr Rearch Fellow the History of Art at the Humani Rearch Instute and a member of the Department of History of Art.

His books clu a study of Van Gogh and Ggu Arl, The Yellow Hoe: Van Gogh, Ggu, and Ne Turbulent Weeks Arl (Ltle Brown, 2006), which was published Bra and the USA to cril acclaim, and has been translated, to date, to five languag; Constable Love: Love, Landspe, Money and the Makg of a Great Pater (Pengu, 2009), a study of John Constable’s romance wh Maria Bicknell and their liv between 1809 and 1816; and A Bigger Msage: Conversatns wh David Hockney (Tham and Hudson, 2011) Gayford was the stigator and curator (wh Anne Lyl) of an exhibn, John Constable Portras, at the Natnal Portra Gallery 2009, which was also shown at Compton Verney, portra has been pated by Lucian Frd, and the picture has been exhibed at the Meo Correr Venice; the Mm of Morn Art, New York; and the Natnal Portra Gallery, London. There is a ic scene, about halfway through art cric Mart Gayford's patient acunt of stg for Lucian Frd for seven punishg months, when the two men are speedg down Bayswater Road a taxi.

MAN WH A BLUE SRF: ON STG FOR A PORTRA BY LUCIAN FRD, BY MART GAYFORD

Frd sudnly asks Gayford where he n buy bathroom sl, anx that he may have gaed a pound or two weight. Gayford is taken aback, until the artist explas that every ounce unts when you spend 10 hours a day on your feet dartg back and forth before the nvas.

It mt ed take stama, Gayford reflects, to be a tly great pater like Frd.

NEW BOOK – LOVE LUCIAN!

And no matter how fascatg s revelatns of the artist's workg life and his pungent views on patg, what rri the narrative is this dialogue between the two, which Frd is vividly surprisg, potent and dynamic, while Gayford is steadily attentive and rpectful, ocsnally worryg about his appearance a mock‑Pooterish Frd famoly guards his privacy, avoidg the prs, visg mms by night and givg only two TV terviews, to my knowledge, the last quarter-century. And though he has talked to other art crics over the years, notably Robert Hugh and William Feaver, Gayford is the first to rerd the daily rual of stg. Gayford is a reful scribe, notg everythg said wh plsible tegry (even though, prumably, no tape rerr was ed, sce he only cid to wre the book after the patg was fished).

A va man would never have nfsed to everythg that Gayford regards as vany: his disappotment when another portras gets last-mute attentn for a show; his anxiety about whether his ear hair, "protdg the manner of the late Leonid Brezhnev" will be noticed and rerd for ever. It be a game of grandmother's tensn ratchets as Gayford yearns for the stgs to e to an end and Frd grows jumpier at the prospect. "After six months, Gayford brightens wh hope.

Gayford's wife also regnis a characteristic darkns of mood the portra that he do not.

MART GAYFORD

Gayford feels is "me lookg at him lookg at me", which is only the tth of most eye-to-eye portras. It's the history of his urtship - admtedly a very long-drawn-out, plited bs - and giv no more than a sketch of his subsequent marriage (which all the evince suggts was jt as lovg as the preamble) said, Mart Gayford has done a very good job; as good, fact, as the job he ma of wrg about Van Gogh and Ggu his prev bgraphy, The Yellow Hoe, and for siar reasons. His daily existence seems pellg bee Gayford mak ordary thgs feel important; he mak the love story matter by sympathisg wh s slow currents, and by lettg unrstand how nsolidated Constable's geni as a pater.

As Gayford pots out, was the sort of suatn Jane Aten relished: unrstated but tense wh s own kd of most origal part of Gayford's book has to do wh the way reveals Maria's character more clearly than has ever been done before: her quick ws (she was both clever and amg) are very enarg, and so is her unswervg loyalty to Constable.

MORNISTS AND MAVERICKS BY MART GAYFORD REVIEW – BAN, FRD, HOCKNEY AND THE LONDON PATERS

Partly bee he loved Maria enough to wa for her, partly bee he unrstood why she was wag (however he might have rented ), and partly - though Gayford has ls to say about this - bee there was somethg about the stalemate that oddly, and whout any nsc acknowledgment, worked to his advantage. In the tumn of 1816, they fally the ed is done, Gayford quickens his pace. Mart Gayford has been talkg wh artists for 30 years.

Gayford starts wh people, moments and meetgs, standg firm the belief that “pictur are affected not only by social and tellectual chang but also by dividual sensibily and character”.

As for Auerbach and Frd, the nversatn went on for half a book’s span allows Gayford to plot several generatns relatn to each other, and ’s strikg how many of the most potent enunters volve forms of teachg. Gayford attends particularly to the relatnship between long ncentratn and sudn achievement.

SPRG CANNOT BE CANCELLED BY DAVID HOCKNEY AND MART GAYFORD – REVIEW

The picture has the wistful air of Watte’s Pierrot, Gayford observ; there’s Gasborough here, too, and Rose. The nversatns of Ayr and Hodgk were charged by the fact of their work fallg jt (but cisively) to eher si of the “visible ontier” between abstractn and is a vivid prence and Gayford giv a fe acunt of her vast, tumblg, ever metamorphosg Hampstead Mural.

Mart Gayford. Gayford, Mart. “There are more blossoms there, ” he wrote to the art cric Mart Gayford.

He lived Paris for a uple of years the mid-70s and, as Gayford pots out, while the new hoe was bought, apparently, on the spur of the moment, “It was surely not entirely chance that an artist long admirg of French patg and the Gallic way of livg, eatg and smokg, wh a French assistant, happened to fd an ial rtg pot jt where and when he did.

BOOKS BY MART GAYFORD

Photograph: © David HockneyGayford has been a iend and sort of Boswell to Hockney for a quarter of a century and has wrten two prev books that were both wh and on the artist. “It’s spectacular, ” he wrote to Gayford.

” Instantly, those early days of the panmic, the work beme a source of hope and solace to a fearful public wh his vivid iPad patgs of landsp and still-lif om his garn, ma as the world locked down around him, appearg on the ont pag of newspapers and on the BBC now Hockney and Gayford’s nversatns had moved to FaceTime, Gayford wh a glass of we Cambridge, Hockney wh a beer Normandy, happily trigued by the weirdly distortg light effects a dodgy wifi signal uld renr on the screen.