Put the Pedal to the Metal
As a conservation measure during the energy crisis, on this date in 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a bill mandating a maximum highway speed limit of 55 mph.Whether or not David Hockney adheres to the speed limit, his car trips do sometimes influence his artworks.
Double Entrance is inspired by the artist's drives along winding and hilly coastal roads near Los Angeles, where shifting perspectives offer glimpses of sea and rock.
Hockney sometimes "orchestrates" road trips by driving faster or slower through the hills, following the pace of the music playing on his car radio. The painting translates his rhythmic progress into the language of abstraction.
Source: Modernism & Abstraction: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: David Hockney, born 1937 England, Double Entrance, 1993–95, oil, 72 x 168 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denhausen Endowment.