Norman Rosenthal Reflects on Early Encounters with David Hockney

Norman Rosenthal, former exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy of Arts, recounts his first encounter with David Hockney around 1964, when Rosenthal was a librarian at Thomas Agnew and Sons in London. He saw Hockney's figurative paintings at John Kasmin's gallery, contrasting with abstract works by Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, and Morris Louis. In the early 1960s, Hockney was gaining fame as a painter and personality, alongside contemporary Patrick Procktor, whose significance in gay subculture and Pop Art was then uncertain. Rosenthal met Hockney personally in 1971 at the Hard Rock Café in London, and they later moved in circles including Derek Jarman. In 1977, Rosenthal became exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1768, which stages loan exhibitions and an annual Summer Exhibition. Hockney was not yet a member at that time.