Day Hockney gets his artistic freedom

Bradford's most famous son, the world's best-known living artist, will receive the Freedom of the City in a colourful ceremony at City Hall on Wednesday, June 21.

The artist, 62, grew up in Eccleshill and attended Bradford Grammar School and Bradford College of Art. One of his brothers, Paul, was Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1977.

"He's not in Los Angeles at the moment. I think he's on the desert run," Paul Hockney told the T&A when asked the whereabouts of his famous brother.

But back in January, when this newspaper first broke the news and contacted Hockney at his London studio, he said the honour touched him and made him very happy.

"It is my town and I spent 20 years of my life here and it coloured everything. No, I didn't expect it, but I am very, very proud," he added.

Councillor Ian Greenwood, the leader of Bradford Council, has yet to formally move the proposal through Council but is not expecting any difficulty in gaining a two-third's majority.

"We want to honour him because, apart from being the world's best known living artist, he's the most famous living Bradfordian who has always been a good ambassador for the city. We're extremely proud of him. He's a self-effacing bloke and I think it's really nice to honour him," he said.

It will be a busy time for Hockney while he is in England. On June 8 he receives his second honorary degree from Leeds University, a Doctorate of Letters (he got a Master of Arts in 1974) at a ceremony to install Lord Melvyn Bragg as the University's new Chancellor.

In June, Salts Mill is going to mount an enormous exhibition of some of Hockney's stage set designs for opera, of which he has undertaken well over a dozen.

The T&A understands the whole of the third floor at Salts is being prepared. In all about 112 separate items are being shipped to Saltaire from Los Angeles.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.