David Hockney's painting "My Parents" depicts his mother and father sitting in their home. His mother sits upright and attentive, while his father sits slouched, absorbed in reading. Each object has a clearly defined color. The painting provides insight into typical gender roles of the time, with the attentive mother and working father. Students could recreate rooms from their own homes from memory to share aspects of their lives and build connections. Key questions examine Hockney's color palette, subjects, and inclusion of objects between the figures.
David Hockney's painting "My Parents" depicts his mother and father sitting in their home. His mother sits upright and attentive, while his father sits slouched, absorbed in reading. Each object has a clearly defined color. The painting provides insight into typical gender roles of the time, with the attentive mother and working father. Students could recreate rooms from their own homes from memory to share aspects of their lives and build connections. Key questions examine Hockney's color palette, subjects, and inclusion of objects between the figures.
David Hockney's painting "My Parents" depicts his mother and father sitting in their home. His mother sits upright and attentive, while his father sits slouched, absorbed in reading. Each object has a clearly defined color. The painting provides insight into typical gender roles of the time, with the attentive mother and working father. Students could recreate rooms from their own homes from memory to share aspects of their lives and build connections. Key questions examine Hockney's color palette, subjects, and inclusion of objects between the figures.
Visual Culture Database Form ARTE 344/544 Spring 2021
Provider: Eva Lord
VCDB #: 6 Big Idea/Subject: Family Major Theme: Home life Medium/ Presentation: Oil painting Visual Components: Color, space, texture, balance, emphasis Category: Fine Arts Pop art Pop culture Non-art
Authorship: David Hockney
Title: My Parents Original Location: Tate Description/Interpretation My Parents by David Hockney is a clean cut and brightly : colored painting. With a solid background it is easy to pick out what Hockney is trying to emphasize, his parents. The figure on the left, the mother, sits upright and attentive and the figure on the right, the father, sits slouched and absorbed in his reading. Each object in the room has a very defined color with the exception of some reflected colors in highlights, such as their shoes and the father’s jacket. Diving further into this piece explains the behavior of his family with his mother looking directly at him and his father fully ignoring him. This is an example of what many households were like at this point in time. The attentive stay at home mother and the working father that takes his free time for himself. The sharp lines and clean features of the composition are a nod to the lifestyle that was most likely encouraged in Hockney’s life. Books perfectly arranged, fresh flowers, mother and father dressed nicely but only half the attention is there. Use in Teaching (Lesson Lesson: Students could expand upon this piece of art by Idea)/3-5 Guiding creating a composition of a room in their home. This Questions: would not be a still life, it would be what they can recall from memory. Creating this from memory will allow for the students to pick out pieces of their home that are significant and add pieces in that may not actually be there to help emphasize the atmosphere. This lesson will encourage students to share their home lives with each other and help uncover aspects of their home they did not realize were important. Seeing a depiction of each other’s homes could help the students feel more connected to one another when they see how their home lives make them feel Guiding Questions: 1. What is the significance of the artists color palette? 2. What is the main subject(s) of this painting? 3. Why do you think the artist included the objects between the two figures in the composition? Image Source: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-my- parents-t03255