Hotel Acatlan: First Day

1980–1983

Designing for the Metropolitan Opera

In 1980 Hockney agrees to design sets and costumes for a French triple bill at the Metropolitan Opera — Satie’s “Parade”, Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias” and Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges” — and in 1981 for a second one, of Stravinsky’s “Le sacre du printemps”, “Le rossignol” and “Oedipus Rex”. The reimagined set of “L’enfant et les sortilèges” from the 1983 exhibition “Hockney Paints the Stage” became a permanent installation at the Spalding House branch of the Honolulu Museum of Art.

December 1985

Quantel Paintbox: drawing straight onto the screen

In December 1985 Hockney uses the Quantel Paintbox, a computer that lets the artist sketch directly onto the screen. The resulting work is featured in a BBC series, “Painting with Light”, that profiles several artists.

December 1985

The cover and pages of French Vogue

Hockney is commissioned to design the cover and pages for the December 1985 issue of the French edition of Vogue: for the cover he paints Celia Birtwell from different views, as if the eye had scanned her face diagonally, in keeping with his interest in Cubism and admiration for Picasso.

1987–1994

Operas in Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Mexico City

Hockney designs Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” for the Los Angeles Music Center Opera (1987), Puccini’s “Turandot” for the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1991) and Richard Strauss’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten” for the Royal Opera House in London (1992). In 1994 he designs costumes and scenery for twelve opera arias for the TV broadcast of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in Mexico City.