Meeting, or Have a nice day, Mr. Hockney

Tate Gallery, London, the UK.

Canvas, oil.

The work depicts a meeting of three famous British artists: David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin and Peter Blake himself. It was created after these three avant-garde painters met in 1979 in Los Angeles. The work jokingly refers to the canvas “Hello, Monsieur Courbet!” by Gustav Courbet, but apart from the central characters, Peter Blake added young people riding on skateboards and skates along the city’s promenade. The artist depicted himself with a big brush in his hands, dressed in comfortable summer clothes. Blake, who had already lived and worked in the south of the USA for some time, seemed to be more at ease and relaxed among palm trees under the scorching sun than his guests who arrived from the UK.